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1 


HISTORY 


>     Ol" 


AMERICA  BEFORE  COLUMBUS 


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V 


MOUND-BUILDERS'  WORKS  NEAR  CHILLICOTHE,  ROSS  COUNTY,  OHIO 

Vol.  I,  p.  61 


'SSu^ 


//O 


HISTORY 


OF 


America  before  Columbus 


According  to  Documents  and 
Approved  Authors 


BY 

P.  DE  ROO 

MEMBER    OF    THE    ARCHi«OLOGICAL   CLUB    OP    THE   LAND  VAN    WABS    AND  OF    THE 

UNITED  STATES  CATHOLIC  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  ;   HONORARY  MEMBER  OF  THE 

AMERICAN  CATHOLIC  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OP  PHILADELPHIA 


J 


VOLUME  I 

AMERICAN  ABORIGINES 


PHILADELPHIA  AND  LONDON 

J.  B.  LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 
1900 


1 


D^t'co   /? 


COPVUIOHT,  igoo, 
BY 

P   De  Roo. 


»-NTCO   BV   ..  B.  UPP,HCOTT   CO^PAHr.  PHaAO.tPHM.  U..., 


PREFACE 


For  several  years  I  searched  the  Vatican  Secret  Ar- 
chives to  obtain  reliable  information  regarding  the 
history  of  one  of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  Alexander  VI., 
who  is  as  much  slandered  as  he  is  little  known.  While 
garnering  from  the  richest  of  historical  treasuries  the 
most  important  notes  for  my  study,  I  happened,  once 
in  a  great  while,  to  meet  with  some  original  and  un- 
published record  pertaining  to  the  religious  history  of 
America,  either  of  the  time  of  the  Spanish  discovery 
or  before  it.  No  wonder  if,  an  American,  I  considered 
those  documents  highly  valuable,  and  copied  them  care- 
fully. Little  by  little  I  had  gathered  a  number  of 
papers  which  some  of  my  friends  deemed  to  be  worthy 
of  publication.  They  attached  especial  importance  to  the 
records  of  papal  intercourse  with  American  territory 
previous  to  the  discovery  of  Columbus. 

My  compilation  was  necessarily  of  incoherent  and, 
for  most  readers,  of  useless  material ;  which,  however, 
if  employed  to  advantage,  might  serve  as  a  foundation 
for  some  interesting  historical  work.  I  went,  there- 
fore, to  search  other  libraries  and  ancient  publications 
to  complete  my  notes  and  fill  up  the  intervening  gaps. 
The  results  were  very  gratifying ;  but,  through  a  nat- 
ural effect  of  inquiry,  I  was  soon  persuaded  that  more 
labor  was  needed ;  for  what  I  learned  of  Christianity 
in  America  shortly  before  Columbus  set  me  on  the 
track  of  an  evangelization  earlier  than  that  to  which  my 
first  documents  had  reference.  I  was  meeting  on  every 
side  with  vestiges  of  a  Christianity  which  evidently 


VI 


PREFACE. 


was  not  introduced  by  the  relatively  late  Northmen. 
A  student  will  hardly  Htop  at  a  question.  I  consulted 
more  authors,  both  ancient  and  modern,  to  find  a  so- 
lution of  the  puzzle.  In  ascending  along  the  river 
of  ages  I  became  convinced  that  every  ray  of  light 
in  the  midst  of  growing  darkness  was  of  inestimable 
value,  if  not  to  discover  ancient  positive  facts  and 
events,  at  least  to  perceive  their  probability,  their  pos- 
sibility or  impossibility.  I  tried  to  catch  every  such 
ray  and  to  treasure  it  up,  groping  my  way  under  the 
guidance  of  the  learned  who  had,  before  me,  inquired 
into  the  very  beginnings  of  the  American  nations.  By 
ways  and  byways  I  travelled  past  the  biblical  Adam, 
even  unto  the  very  limit  of  all  material  beings,  to  the 
scientific  moneron.  Here,  of  course,  I  was  compelled 
to  stop  and  return.  In  coming  back  I  was  as  careful 
and  inquisitive  as  I  had  been  on  my  tentative  journey 
out,  taking  at  every  step  the  direction  of  those  of  my 
knowing  guides  whom  I  found  to  be  acquainted  best 
with  the  particular  fields  which  we  had  to  traverse  in 
succession ;  and  I  noted  down  all  the  most  reliable  in- 
formation that  I  could  obtain. 

In  all  these  literary  travels  I  kept  a  steady  eye  on 
the  religious  particulars  that  seemed  to  be  of  any  in- 
terest ;  but  I  could  not  help  noticing,  also,  most  im- 
portant circumstances,  events,  and  institutions  which 
principally  pertain  to  the  social  and  political  life  of 
the  American  nations  and  tribes  that  have  risen,  flour- 
ished, and  fallen  before  the  great  discovery  of  Co- 
lumbus. 

After  completing  my  notes  and  observations,  I 
thought  that  a  fitting,  comprehensive  title  of  them  all 
would  be  "  History  of  America  before  Columbus  ;"  and 
I  feel  confident  that  their  perusal  may  be  agreeable 
and   instructive,    particularly    for   readers   who   have 


''itiili^XkS'u.. 


PREFACE. 


VU 


ature 
view, 


imagined  that  there  scarcely  exists  any  liistory  of  our 
continent  before  Cohunbus's  time. 

I  have  paid  special  attention  to  all  such  f^icta  as  are 
either  diflficult  or  not  at  all  to  be  found  in  former  liter- 
in  anjjoaethodicaJMtorni;  With  this  object  in 
I  have  readily  sacrificed  the  idea  of  writing  an 
evenly  balanced  and  classical  composition,  allowing  the 
largest  space  to  events  and  circumstances  which  are  the 
least  known  to  thi&-AmGricfti»~^^»"^^'c  or  not  known  at_ 
all_to_profe88ed  historians  themselves  ;  evenjthou^h.  in 
'generaThistory,  tli^  particulars  should  be  of  minor 
importance!!  'Nor  wa8~Tt~Tn7"  t)nly  indention  to  teach 
things  unknown,  but  also  to  correct  some  errors  in 
regard  to  ancient  American  history  that  have  been, 
knowingly  or  unknowingly,  brought  forth  on  the 
occasion  of  the  late  Columbian  centenary. 

The  nature  of  the  documenic  from  which  I  have 
commenced  my  study  has  caused  the  religious  trend 
which  pervades  my  work ;  yet  I  have  neglected  the 
social,  civil,  and  political  interests  neither  of  our  abo- 
rigines nor  of  the  European  immigrants  in  America. 

The  authentic  records,  set  forth  either  in  the  text 
or  copied  in  the  appendix,  I  propose  as  settling  the 
points  of  which  they  treat.  In  choosing  my  teachers 
and  guides  among  the  writers  before  me,  I  have  aimed 
at  accepting  those  who  have  made  themselves  a  com- 
mendable name  by  their  deep  science  or  acknowledged 
scholarship  during  these  last  decades  of  modern  research, 
as  also  those  ancient  historians  who  are  universally  rec- 
ognized as  authorities,  either  for  their  classic  attainments 
or  their  peculiar  facilities  for  truthful  information  while 
writing  as  eye-  and  ear-witnesses.  I  trust  that  personal 
religious  conviction  shall  not  have  biassed  my  statements 
or  conclusions,  because  I  have  made  it  my  duty  to  hear 
the  testimony  of  dissenting  and  infidel  authors  as  well 


Vlll 


PREFACE. 


as,  and  even  more  than,  that  of  those  of  my  own  faith. 
And  right  here  I  feel  alnir>8t  obliged  to  apologize  for 
my  frequent  notes  and  extracts  from  two  authors  whose 
religious  ideas  are  either  extremely  vague  or  absolutely 
null  when  not  inimical  to  Christianity.  My  only  ex- 
cuse is  that  H.  H.  Bancroft  and  W.  H.  Prescott  are 
extraordinarily  rich  in  ntements  of  particular  and 
well-defined  facts,  which  .re,  at  any  rate,  required  as 
the  basis  and  substance  itself  of  any  work  that  may 
make  pretensions  to  the  title  of  an  historical  com- 
position. 

As  my  credentials,  I  next  give  the  catalogue  of  the 
original  manuscript  codices  which  I  have  utilized  in 
my  book,  and  of  a  couple  that  I  have  had  occasion  to 
mention.  As  further  authority,  I  append  the  list  of 
authors  whose  works  I  have  personally  consulted,  and 
the  more  extensive  roll  of  other  writers  who  influenced 
the  opinions  of  those  whom  I  had  the  advantage  of 
reading  myself. 

I  might  here  add  a  general  synopsis  of  all  the  matter 
treated  in  my  work,  but  the  reader  will  obtain  from 
the  detailed  "  contents"  of  each  volume  a  sufficient 
knowledge  both  of  the  various  subjects  of  which  I  am 
to  speak  and  of  their  logical  connection. 

May  I  succeed  in  entertaining  and  instructing  my 
readers,  and  I  shall  feel  repaid  for  my  labor. 

P.  De  Ego. 

Portland,  Oregon. 


ARCHIVES    AND    MANUSCRIPTS  CONSULTED. 


Archivium  S.  ConsiHtorii  Vaticanum,  Rome. 
Acta  Consistorialia  ab  Anno  1409  ad  1433. 
Provisiones   Innocentii   VIII.  et  Alexandri   VI.,  or  Acta 

Consistorialia,  1489  ad  1503. 
Acta  Consistorialia  ab  Anno  1492  ad  1523. 
Archivium  Apostolicum  Secretum  Vutieanum,  Rome. 

Regestum  7 :   Innocentii  III.,  Bullarium,  An.  VIII.,  IX., 

Tomus  IV. 
Regestum  38 :  Joannis  XXL,  Bullarium,  An.  I.,  Tomus  I. 
Regestum  276:  Gregorii  XI.,  Bullarium  Camerale,  An.  III., 

Tomus  III. 
Regestum  407 :  Nieolai  V.,  de  Curia,  Liber  II. 
Regestum  777. 

Regestum  Avenionense:  dementis  VII.,  Tomus  LII. 
Joannis  XXII.     Epistola)  2191,  2192,  2195,  2196,  2199. 
Obligationes,  No.  66. 
Obligationes,  No.  72. 
Obligationes  No.  306,  alias  55 :  Primus  Obligationum  Eu- 

genii,  PP.  quarti,  1431  ad  1439. 
Obligationes  No.  566,  alias  65  vel  66 :  Eugenii  IV.,  Nieolai 

IV.,  Calixti  III.,  Pii  II.,  et  Pauli  II. 
Obligationes  No.  595,  alias  60 :  Martini  V.,  Obligationes  S. 

Collegii  ab  Anno  1422  ad  1428. 
.     Obligationes  No.  596,  alias  64 :   Obligationes  Collegii  sub 

Martino  V.,  Eugenio  IV.  ab  Anno  1427  ad  1443. 
Obligationes  No.  604,  alias  65 :  Martini  V.  et  Eugenii  IV. 
5  Divisionum,  Anno  1428  ad  1437. 

Provisiones,  Anno  1433  ad  1468. 
Rationes  Collectoria?  Svetia),  Norwegian,  Gotiie  et  Angliffi, 

1306,  1313,  1326.  ._ 

Armarium  12,  No.  121 :  Acta  Consistorialia. 
Armarium  12,  No.  122:  Anno  1517  usque  ad   1534,  Acta 

Consistorialia  diversa. 
Armarium  25,  No.  18.  •    • 

ix 


X  ARCHIVES    AND    MANUSCRIPTS   CONSULTED. 

Armarium  29,  No.  50 :   Alexaiidri   VI.     Di versa  Camero9, 

1492  ad  1495,  Liber  I. 
Armarium  35,  No.  12 :  Urbani  VI.,  Bonifaeii  IX.,  Innocentii 

VII.,  Gregorii  XII.     Littex'ffi  Decimarum  et  Collectori- 

arum. 
Armarium  39,  No.  16 :  Sixti  IV.    Brovia  ad  Principes,  Anno 

1483,  Tomus  I. 
8chede  Garampi. 
Archivium  Lateranense,  Rome. 

Regestum  Bonifaeii  IX.,  Anno  I.,  Liber  II. 
Bonifaeii  IX.,  Anno  13,  Liber  Provisionum. 
Bonifaeii  IX.,  Tomus  34. 
Bonifaeii  IX.,  Tomus  96. 
Bonifaeii  IX.,  Tomus  102. 
Innocentii  VII.,  Tomus  125. 

Joannis  XXIII.,  Tomus  142,  vcl  Anno  I.,  Liber  VII. 
Martini  V.,  Tomus  255,  vel  Anno  VIII.,  Liber  108. 
Sixti  IV.,  Anno  X.,  Liber  I. 
Bibliotheca  Barberiniana,  Rome. 

MS.  Codex  XL.,  No.  16,  not  foliated. 
Bibliotheca  Corsiniana,  Rome. 
Cod.  244  or  Col.  36,  D,  2. 
Cod.  377. 
Cod.  776  or  Col.  39,  G,  2 :  Chronica  Fr.  Joannis  de  Capis- 

trano. 
Bibliotheca  Vaticana,  Rome. 
Pars  Ottoboniana,  Cod.  65. 
Pars  Ottoboniana,  Cod.  2651. 
Pars  Ottoboniana,  Cod.  3057. 
Bibliotheca  Vittorio  Emanuele,  Rome. 

MSS.  Sessoriani,  No.  46 :  Liber  Taxarum  omnium  Ecclesi- 

arum  et  Monasteriorum  diligentissime  emendatus  ad 

exemplar  Libri  Saeri  CoUegii  et  Camero  Ajiostolice. 
MSS.  Sessoriani,  No.  413. 

MANUSCRIPTS  MENTIONED. 


British  Museum,   London.     Eger-     No.      1374 :      Nicolaus     Herborn, 

ton  MS.  Relatio  vera  de  Novis  Insulis. 

Stadtbibliothek.  Treves.  MS.  Cod. 


PRINTED   LITERATURE  CONSULTED. 


.' 


><     Academic  des  Inscriptions,  Vol.  XXVIII. 

^f    Acosta,   Jose   do.      The   Natural    and   Moral    History   of   the 
Indies ;  London,  1880.     A  reprint  of  the  English  transla- 
lation  of  1604,  from  the  Spanish. 
■^    Acta  Sanctorum  (Holland.)  :  ad  3  Februarii. 

Acta  Sanctorum  (BoUand.)  :  Acta  SS.  Brendani  et  Maclovii ;  ad 

diem  16  Maii,  Vol.  III. ;  Antvcrpia\  1680. 
Acta  Sanctorum  (Bolland.) :  ad  diem  9  Junii,  Vita  Si.  Columbse ; 

Antverjiiffi,  1698. 
Acta  Sanctorum  (Bolland.) :  ad  diem  29  Julii,  Vol.  VII. :  Vita 

S.  Olai ;  Antverpia^  1731. 
Adam  Bremcnsis.     Historia  ...  or  Gesta  Hammaburgensis  Ec- 
clcsiaj  Pontificum,  ap.  Pertz,  Monumenta. 

Adam  arrived  in  Bremen  in  the  year  1067,  and  wrote  about 
the  beginning  of  the  last  quarter  of  the  eleventh  century.  His 
authority  is  admitted  by  all. 

Adam  Bremensis.     De  Situ  Dania;. 

Adamnan,  St.     Vita  S.  Columba;,  ap.  Fowler,  Adamni  Vita  S. 
Columba? ;  Oxford,  1894. 

Adamnan,  highly  praised  by  Bede  the  Venerable,  by  Ceolfrid 
Alcuin,  Fordun,  and  all  Irish  writers,  and  mentioned  as  a  saint  in 
the  English  Martyrology,  compiled  all  the  principal  facts  and  inci- 
dents of  the  life  of  his  predecessor,  St.  Columba,  who  died  only 
twenty-seven  years  before  the  birth  of  his  biographer.  The  Angli- 
can bishop,  Forbes,  calls  Adamnan's  Life  of  St.  Columba  the  soli- 
tary record  of  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  Bede  and  the  Pictish  Chronicle,  the  chief  trust- 
worthy monument  till  we  come  to  the  MargareUm  reformation. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  well  says  that  "  we  find  in  Columba's  Life  not 
only  the  firm  foothold  of  history,  but  the  vivid  portraiture  of  an 
individual  man."     Adamnan  died  an  abbot  of  Hy  in  a.d.  704. 

,^     Ailly,  d',  or  Potrus  Alliacus,  a.d.  1360-1425,  a  cardinal.     Oos- 

mographia. 
>i   A.  Lapide,  Corn.     Commentaria  in  Scripturam  Sacram ;  Pari- 

siis,  1877. 


xu 


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Allen,  C,  F.     Histoiro  do  Danomark  ;  (.'opciihague,  1878. 
This  work  was  crowned  in  Denmark. 

Allioli,  Dr.  Josoph  Franz.     Die  Heilige  Schrift  des  Alton  und 

^euon  TestamonteH;  Miinehen  und  ^/andshut,  1853. 
Amat  di  S.  Filippo,  Pietro.     Gli   Illustri  Viaggiatori   Italian! ; 

Roma,  1885. 
American    Catholic     Quarterly    Review,    The.       Philadelphia, 

1876,  seq. 
American  ('yclopinedia. 
American  Ecclesiastical  Review. 
Anderson,   Johann.     Nachrichten   von   Island,  Groenland   und 

der  Strasse  Davis ;  Hamburg,  1746. 
Anderson,  Rasmus  B.     America  not  discovered  by  Columbus; 

Chicago,  1877. 
Antiquaires  du  Nord.     Memoires  des  .  .  . ;   Copenhague,   1836, 

seq. 
Arbois  do  Joubainville,  d',     Les  Premiers  Habitantc   de  I'Eu- 

rope ;  Paris,  1889. 
Arcelin,  Adrien.     L'Bpoque  Glaciaire,  in  Congres  Scientifique, 

Sec.  VIII.,  p.  70;  Paris,  1891. 
Archivio  Storico  Italiano.     Firenze,  1842,  seq. 
Assal,   W.     Nachrichten   liber    die    friihei-en    Einwohner  von 

Nordamerika ;  Heidelbei-g,  1827. 
Augustin,  St.     De  Civitate  Dei. 
Bailly.     Lettres  a  M.  de  Voltaire  sur  I'Atlantide  de  Platon ; 

Paris,  1805. 
Balan,  Pietro.    Storia  d'ltalia ;  Modena,  1877. 

Drawn  mainly  from  the  Archives  of  Modena. 

Baldwin,  John  D.     Prehistoric  Nations ;  New  York,  1874. 
Bancroft,  George.     History  of  the  United  States. 
Bancroft,  Hubert   Howe.      The  Native   Races  of   the   Pacific 
States  of  North  America ;  New  York,  1875. 

The  work  shows  the  faults  of  employing  several  independent 
contributors,  in  a  want  of  uniform  discrimination,  and  in  that  pro- 
miscuous avidity  of  search  which  marks  rather  an  eagerness  to 
amass  than  a  judgment  to  select  and  give  literary  perspective. 
(Thus  J.  Winsor.) 

Baronius,  Csesar.     Annales  Ecclesiastici ;  Lucae,  1741 — together 

with  Critica  Historico-Chronologica  Antonii  Pagii. 
Bastian,  Adolf     Die  Culturliinder  des  Alten  Amerika ;  Berlin, 

1878. 


"\i- 


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Xlll 


Biiumgartnor,  Alex.     Nordische  Fahrton,  odor  iBland  und  die 

Faroer ;  Freiburg  iin  BrciHgau,  1889. 
/  BearniHh,   North  liudlow.     The  DiHcovery  of  America  by  the 

Northmen  in  the  Tenth  Century  ;  London,  1841. 
•''    BeamiHh,  N.  L.     Voyai^eH  of  the  Northmen  to  America ;  Boston, 

1877. 
/    BeauvoiH,  E.     La   Decouverte  du  Nouvoau  Monde  par  les  Ir- 

hvndais    et    les    Premieres    Traces    du    Christianismo    en 

Amerique  avant  I'An  1000;  Nancy,  1875. 
Beauvois,  E.     Les  Derniers  Vestiges  du  Christianismo  Preche 

du  10°  au  14"  Siecle  dans  le  Markland  et  la  Grande  Irlande. 

Les  Porte-Croix  ;  Paris,  1877. 
Beauvois,  E.     Origines  et  Fondation  du  Plus  Ancien  Eveche 

du  Nouveau  Monde ;  Paris,  1878. 
Bekkerus,  Immanuel.     Platonis  Opera  Omnia. 
Belknap,  Jeremy.     American  Biography ;  Boston,  1794. 
Bembo,    Pietro     Cardinale.       Istorie     Veneziane     latinamente 

Scritto  ;  In  Venezia,  1718. 
Berthelot.     Histoiro  Physique,  Politique  et  Naturolle  de  I'lle 

de  Cuba,  de  Ramon  de  la  Sagra. 
Bible,  Holy. 
Bircherodus.     Schediasma  do  Orbe  Novo  non  Novo ;  Altdorf, 

1683. 
Boletin  de  la  Real  Academia  de  la  Historia;  Madrid,  1891,  1892. 

A  very  learned  publication. 

Bollandists.     See  Acta  Sanctorum. 

Boscana. 

Breviarium  Romanum. 

Brockhaus.     AUgemeine  Encyclopedic  dor  Wissenschaften  odor 

Conversations  Lexicon  ;  Leipzig,  1872. 
Brooks.     In  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  2,  1875. 
Brownell,  Charles.     The  Indian  Races ;  New  York,  1853. 
Buache.     Memoire  sur  I'lle  de  Frislande,  in  Memoires  de  I'Aca- 

demie  Royale  des  Sciences,  1787. 
Butterfield,  General.     A  lecture,  in  Now  York  Freeman's  Journal, 

November  5,  1892. 
Casas.  See  Las  Casas. 
Cass,  General.      In   American   Catholic   Quarterly  Review,   Vol. 

XVIII. 
Charlevoix,  Pierre  FranQois-Xavier.      Histoiro   de   I'llo   Espa- 

gnole  ou  do  S.  Domingue ;  Amsterdam,  1733. 


XIV 


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Charlevoix,  Pierre  Fran9oifl-Xavier.     History  of  rara!:;nay. 

Note. — When  the  work  of  Charlevoix  is  not  mentioned,  hia 
Histoire  de  I'lle  Espagnole  is  meant. 

Charney,  Desire.  Cites  et  Ruines  Americaines;  Paris,  1861. 
And  its  translation,  The  Ancient  Cities  of  the  New  World; 
New  York,  1887. 

Chevalier,  Ulysse.  Repertoire  des  Sources  Historiques  du 
Moyen  Age ;  Paris,  1877-1886. 

Chiesa  Russa,  della ;  e  delle  sue  Relazioni  coUa  Sancta  Sedo 
della  Sua  Nascita  sino  a  Caterina  II. 

Clarke,  R.  H.     In  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  Vol.  XV. 

Coleceion  de  Documentos  Ineditos  para  la  Historia  de  Espa£ia ; 
Madrid,  1842,  seq. 

Compte  Rendu  du  Congres  Scientifiquo  International  des  Catho- 
liques,  Tenu  a  Paris  du  1"  au  6  Avril,  1891 ;  Paris,  1891. 

Compte  Rendu  du  Congres  Scientifique  International  des  Catho- 
liques. — Section  :  Sciences,  Histoire,  1894. 

Congres  International  des  Aniericanistes. 

Congres  Scientifique.     See  either  "  Compte  Rendu." 

Cook's  Voyages ;  Dublin,  1784. 

Cooley,  W.  Desb.  The  History  of  Maritime  and  Inland  Dis- 
covery ;  London,  1830.  And  its  incorrect  French  transla- 
tion, Histoire  Generale  des  Voyages  ;  Paris,  1840. 

Costa,  B.  F.  De.     Sailing  Directions ;  Albany,  1869. 

Costa,  B.  F.  De.  The  Precolumbian  Discovery  of  America  by 
the  Northmen ;  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1890. 

This  is  a  small  but  learned  and  reliable  monograph. 

Costa,  B.  F.  De.  The  Northmen  in  Maine;  Albany,  N.  Y., 
1870. 

Crantz,  David.     History  of  Greenland ;  London,  1767. 

Cronau,  Rudolf     Amerika ;  Leipzig,  1892. 

Cushing.  In  Transactions  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  An- 
thropology, December,  1888.  . 

D'Ailly,  or  Petrus  Alliacus.     See  Ailly. 

Dandolo,  Conte  TuUio.     Cristoforo  Colombo;  Milano,  1891. 

Dante  Alighieri.     Divina  Commedia. 

D'Arbois  de  Joubainville.     See  Arbois. 

Daru.     Histoire  de  la  Republique  de  Venise ;  Paris,  1826. 

De  Guignes.  In  Memoires  de  I'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  T. 
XXVIII. 

Dohio.     Erzbisthum  Hamburg-Bremen ;  Berlin,  1877. 


PRINTED   LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


XV 


Depping.      Histoire  des  Expeditions  Muritimes  des  Norniands 

au  X"'  Siec'lo  ;  Parin,  1826. 
De   Boo,   Peter.      De   Wonderbare   Maagd    Siiitc   Amelberga ; 

BrusHel,  1872. 
Diplomatarium  Islandicum ;  Kaupmannhofn,  1857. 
Diplomatariurp  Noi'vegieum.     Ed.  by  Lange  and  Ungor. 
Donahoe's  M,    •    ine. 
Denis,   Niche.  ...   Germanus.      Ptolenia'i  cosmographia)  Libri 

VIII. ;  Ulma?,  1482. 
Du  Cangc.     Glossarium  Media)  et  Infimfe  Latinitatis;    Niert, 

1883. 
*S     Duchesne.     Liber  Pontificalia ;  Paris,  1889. 

Duran,  Diego.     Ilisteria  de  las  Indias  de  Nueva  EspaBa ;  Mex- 
ico, 1867. 
Dure.     Cesaree  Fernandez.      In  Boletin  do  la  Real  Academia 

de  la  Histeria,  T.  XXI. 
East  Oregonian.     A  daily  paper  of  1' .  ndleton,  Oregon. 
Eubel,  Conrad.     Hierarchia  Catholica  Medii  ^Evi ;  Miinster. 
<     Farnum,   Alex.      Visits   of   the    NoHhmen   to   Rhode   Island ; 

Providence,  1877. 
Ficinus  MarsiliuS.     Tuo  Oetoo  nXarmvoi  Aitavra  to  loZto/ieva;  Fran- 

cofurti,  1602. 
•    Fiske,  John.     The   Discovery   of  America;   Boston   and   New 

York,  1892. 
Fita,  Fidel.     In  Boletin  de  la  Real  Academia  de  la  Histeria, 

T.  XXV. 
Forster.     Histoire  des  Decouvertes  et  des  Voyages  faits  dans  le 

Nerd.     A  translation. 
Foster,   J.   W.      Prehistoric   ^aces  of   the    United    States   of 

America ;  Chicago,  1  7  *:. 
Fowler,  J.  T.     Adamni  Yu-a  .^'.  nbtt;  Oxford,  1894. 

(/   Gaffarel,  Paul.     Histoire  ':■  '  .  :  ■       iverte  de  TAmerique ;  Piris, 

1892. 
Gaffarel,  Paul.     Les  Voya,   ).        .St.  Brendan  et  des  Papee. 
Gams,  Pius  Bonifatius.     Series  Episcoporuni ;  Ratisbonte,  1873. 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  El  Inca.     Comentarios  Reales  .  ,  .  de  les 

Incas  del  Peru ;  Madrid,  1723. 

Garcilaaso  was  born  at  Cuzco,  from  a  Spaniflh  conqueror  and  a 
lady  of  the  royal  Inca  family,  in  the  year  1540,  and  died  at  Cor- 
dova in  1616.  He  was  an  eye-witnees  of  a  considerable  portion  of 
the  facts  narrated  in  his  Comentarios,  and  obtained  his  further  in- 
formation from  other  eye-witnesses,  both  Hpanish  and  Peruvian. 
His  honesty  is  above  suspicion. 


) 


XVI 


PRINTED   LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


ii 


Gass,  Patrick.   A  Journal  of  the  Voyages  and  Travels  of  a  Corps 

of  Discovery ;  Pittsburg,  1807. 
Gleeson,  W.      History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  California ; 

San  Francisco,  1872. 
Gomara,  Francisco  Lopez  de.     Historiu  de   las   Indias ;    Sara- 

gossa,  1553.     Or,  Storia  Generale  delle  Indie ;  Roma,  1556. 

Gomara  is  a  scholarly  writer  and  an  eye-witness  of  most  facts 
narrated  by  him. 

Gottlob,  Ad.     Aus  der  Camera  Apostolica ;  Innsbruck,  1889. 

Grfiberg  da  Hemso.  A  translation  of  Rafn's  Memoiro  sur  la 
Decouverte  do  I'Amerique  aux  X"  Siecle. 

Gnigas.     See  Magnussen. 

Gravier,  Gabriel.  Decouverte  de  I'Amerique  par  les  Normands 
au  X'  Siecle ;  Paris  et  Rouen,  1874. 

Guerin,  Paul.     Les  Petits  Bollandistes ;  Paris,  1888. 

Guignes,  do.     In  Academic  des  Inscriptions,  T.  XXVIII. 

Hafniensis  Societas.     Scripta,  Pars  II. 

Hakluyt  Society.  Divers  Voyages  touching  the  Discovery  of 
America ;  London,  1850.     Ed.  by  John  Winter  Jones. 

Hayes,  Isacco.     La  Terra  di  Desolazione ;   Milano,  1874.     An 
Italian  translation.     And  the  original  Land  of  Desolation. 

Haynes,  Henry  W.  In  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  His- 
tory of  America. 

Herbermann,  Charles  G.  Torfason's  Ancient  Vinland ;  New 
York,  1888. 

Note. — Unless  otherwise  stated,  this  work  is  referred  to. 

Herbermann,  Charles  G.  Education  in  Ancient  Babylonia,  Phoe- 
nicia, and  Judea.  In  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review, 
Vol.  XVIII. 

Herder's  Conversations-Lexicon  ;  Freiburg  im  Breisgau,  1882. 

Herrera,  Antonio  de.  Historia  General  de  los  Hechos  de  los 
Castelanos  en  las  Islas  i  tieira  firme  del  Mar  Oceano ; 
Madrid,  1601.     And  another  edition. 

r 

The  work  of  Herrera  (a.d.  1549-1625)  must  be  admitted  to  have 
extraordinary  merit.  Herrera  has  brought  together  a  vast  quantity 
of  information  in  respect  to  the  institutions  and  usages  of  the 
Indian  nations,  collected  from  the  most  authentic  sources.  ( Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p.  91,  seg. ) 

Hettinger,  Franz.     Apologie  des  Christenthums ;  Freiburg  im 

Breisgau,  1867. 
Hin  forna  Logbok.    See  Magnussen. 


PRINTED    LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


XVll 


HorniuH,  Georgius.     De  Originibus  Americanis ;  Hagffi  Comitis, 
1652. 

Horn  is  very  erudite.    This  work  is  referred  to,  unless  other- 
wise stated. 

Ilornius,  Goorgius.     Ulyssea. 

Horsford,  Ebon  Norton.     The  Discovery  of  the  Ancient  City  of 

Norumbega ;  Cambridge,  1889. 
Horsford,  Ebon  Norton.     The  Defences  of  Norumbega ;  Boston 

and  New  York,  1891. 
Huguea,  Luigi.     Storia  della  Geografia;  Torino,  1891. 
Humboldt,  Friedrich  Heinrich  Alexander  von.     Vues  des  Cor- 

dilleres;  Paris,  1816. 
Humboldt,  Friedrich  Heinrich  Alexander  von.    Examen  Critique 

de  I'Histoire  de  la  Geographic  du   Nouveau   Continent; 

Paris,  1837. 
Huitfeldt.    See  Lange. 
Hutson,  Charles  Woodward.    The  Story  of  Language ;  Chicago, 

1897. 
Icazbalceta,  Gioach.  Garcias.    Giovanni  di  Zumarraga,  Primo 

Vescovo  di  Messico;  Quaracchi,  1891. 
Irving,  Washington.     Works,  Vol.  III. :  Vida  y  Viajes  de  Cris- 

tobal  Colon  ;  Santiago,  1859, 
Jacker,  Edward.     In  American  Catholic  Quarterly  Review,  Vol. 

III.  p.  255 :  The  Mental  Capacity  of  the  American  Indian 

as  indicated  by  his  Speech. 
Jaffe,  Loewenfeld,  etc.     Regesta  Pontificum  Bomanoinim ;  Lip- 

zisB,  1F85. 
Jarnsida  edr  Hakonarbok.     See  Sveinbjornsson. 
Jomard.     Les  Monuments  de  la  Geographic  ;  Paris,  no  date. 
Jousset,  Dr.  P.     Les  Origines  Asiatiques  de  la  Civilization  en 

Amerique  avant  Christophe  Colonib,  in  Congres  Scientifique, 

Paris,  1891. 
Kastner,  Adolphe.     Analyse  des  Traditions  religieuses  des  Peu- 

ples  indigenes  de  I'Amerique ;  Louvain,  1845. 
Kosma  de  Papi,  Carolus.     Liturgica  Sacra   Catholica;  Ratis- 

bonro,  1863. 
Kretschmer,  Konrad.     Die  Entdeckung  Amerika's  (and  Maps)  ; 

Berlin,  1892. 
Kuntsmann,     Friedrich.      Die    Entdeckung    Amerika's;    with 

beautiful  Atlas  explained ;  Miinchen,  1859. 
Lafiteau.     Deeouvertes  et  Conquetes  des  Portuguais;    Paris, 

1734. 


XVlll 


PRINTED   LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


LainbeciuH,  PctruH.     OHtjiiK'H  Ilamlmru;uiiHcs,  J. 

Lan^o,  Chr.  V.  A.  o^  linger,  (!arl  J{.  og  lluitfeldt,  II.  J. 
Diploinatarium  Norwegicuin  ;  (.'hriHtiaiiia,  1847. 

Langehck,  Jacob.     .ScriptoiTs  Koriiin  Jiaiiii-arurn  ;  Ilafnia?,  1872. 

Lappeiiberg,  Jo.  M.  Mgri.  Adami  Gesta  IlaniniaburgciiHiH  Ee- 
cleHia*  Poiititifuin. 

LaH  (y'aHas,  Bartoloino  do,  tii-Ht  liishop  of  Chiapa.  IliHtoria  Gene- 
ral de  las  IndiaH,  in  t.  Ixiii.,  .set/.,  of  Coleccion  de  Docu- 
mentoR  IncditoH  para  la  Ilistoria  do  EHnaSla. 

Laa  Ca«aH  was  an  eye-witness  of  the  facta  he  narraten.     He  is 
honest,  yet  somewhat  partial  towards  the  American  natives. 

Leclorcq,  Chrestien.  Nouvello  Relation  do  la  GaHpesic,  qui  con- 
tient  les  inreurs  et  la  religion  des  Sauvages  GaspoHions 
Porte-Croix,  adoratours  du  Soleil,  et  d'autres  pouploH  de 
I'Amerique  Septentrionalo,  dito  lo  Canada;  Paris,  1691. 

Leo  XIII.     Encyc.  "  Quarto  abounto  sneculo,"  April  12,  1892. 

Lescarbot.     HiBtoire  de  la  Nouvello  France;  Paris,  1618. 

L'Estrange,  Hamon.  Americans  no  Jevves ;  or.  Improbabilities 
that  the  Americans  are  of  that  liace ;  London,  1652. 

Letronne.  Recherehes  Geographiques  ot  Critiques  sur  lo  livre 
[of  Dicuil]  "De  Mensura  Orbis  Terraj ;"  Paris,  1814 

Liljegren,  Joh.  Gust.  Diplomatarium  Sueeanum,  Svenskt  Di- 
plomatarium ;  Stockholm,  1829 

Lingard,  John.     The  History  of  England ;  New  York,  1879. 

Liiken,  Dr.  Heinrich.  Die  Traditionen  des  Menschengeschlechts ; 
Miinster,  1869. 

Mabillon.     Acta  Sanctorum  Ordinis  Sancti  Benedicti,  Soeculi  IV. 

Maffei,  Joannes  Petrus.  Historiaruni  Indicarum  Libri  XVI. ; 
Colonia?  Aggrippinse,  1590,  and  Cadomi,  1614. 

Magnussen,  Finn,  et  alii.  Gragas  or  Hin  forna  Logbok  Islen- 
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Malipiero,  Domenico.  Annali  Veneti,  in  Archivio  Storico  Itali- 
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Mallet.  Northern  Antiquities.  An  English  translation  of  Intro- 
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Maltebrun,  Conrad.  Geografia  Universale ;  Milano,  1815.  An 
Italian  translation. 

Marsillio  Ficino.     See  Ficinus. 

Martyr,  Peter,  d'Angleria.  De  Rebus  Oceanicis  et  Novo  Orbe, 
Decades  tree ;  Colonise,  1574. 

Matthews,  G.  C.  In  the  Appeal  Avalanche,  Memphis,  November 
6,  1892.  -  ,  ..:.;. 


PRINTED    LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


XIX 


,  H.  J. 

K,  1872. 

ia  Gcne- 
j    Docu- 

H.    He  is 

qui  con- 
ispesicns 
uples  de 
691. 
1892. 
8. 

babilities 
2. 

r  lo  livre 
L4. 
piiskt  Di- 

1879. 
chlechts ; 

oeculi  IV. 
ri  XVI.; 

)6k  Islen- 

ico  Itali- 

of  Intro- 

815.     An 

ovo  Orbe, 
'November 


Mauror,  Konrad.     iHland  ...  bin  zum   Untergango   dee   Frei- 

HtaatH;  Miinehen,  1874. 
Meibom.     Rerum  Gemianicarum,  T.  II. 
Mfc'inoircH  do  la  Societe  dcH  AiitiquaireH  du  Nord ;  Coponhague, 

1836,  seq. 
Mereor,  Homy  C.     Tho  Hill-CavoB  of  Yucatan ;  Philadelphia, 

1896. 
Mier,  do,  Dr  Servando  Teresa.   A  Memoir  to  the  Historia  General 

do  las  Cosas  do  Nuova  EspaRa  of  Sahagun ;  Mexico,  1829. 
Migne.     Patrologiro  Cursus,  Series  latina ;  Paris. 
Mizzi,  M.  A.  M.     Cristoforo  Colombo ;  S.  Pier  d'Arena,  1891. 
Montanus.     Nieuwe  Weereld. 
Moosmuller,   Oswald.     Europiier  in   Amerika  vor  Columbus ; 

liogonsburg,  1879. 
Miiller,  Max.    Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language ;  New  York, 

1878. 
Munch,  P.  A.     In  Memoires  des  Antiquaires  du  Nord,  1845-49. 
Munch,  P.  A.     Codex  diplomaticus  Monasterii  Sancti  Michaelis, 

vulgo  Munkalif. 
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1884. 
Nadaillac,  Marquis  de.    Les  plus  Anciens  Vestiges  de  FHomme 

en  Amerique,  in  Congres  Scientifique,  VIII.,  118. 
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mientos;  Madrid,  1858-1880. 
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O'Donoghue,  Denis.     Brendaniana,  St.  Brendan  the  Voyager  in 

Story  and  Legend ;  Dublin,  1893. 
O'Kane  Murray,  John.    Popular  History  of  the  Catholic  Church 

in  the  United  States ;  New  York,  1876. 
O'Kane  MuiTay,  John.     Lives  of   the  Catholic  Heroes  and 

Heroines  in  America ;  New  York,  1882. 
O'Reilly,  Bernard.     Greenland  and  the  Adjacent  Seas :  Voyage 

of  1817;  London,  1818. 
Oviedo  y  Valdes,  Gonzalo  Fernandez  de.    Historia  General  de 

las  Indias  Occidentales ;  Sine  loco. 

Oviedo  was  an  eye-witness  of  what  he  wrote. 
Pagius,   Antonius.     Critica  in   Annales   Baronii   et  Eaynaldi ; 

Lucfe,  1741,  seq. 
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Payne,  Edw.  John.    History  of  the  New  World ;  New  York, 

1892.  -,         .      ^  .  - 

l.—b 


( 


XX 


PRINTED    LITERATURE   CONSULTED. 


Portz,  Goor^.   Ilcnr.     Monuinonta  (iormaniic  lliHtoricn;  IFano- 

vi'nv,  lH4r.. 
PoHchol,  OHcar.     (ioHchichto  dos  Zcitaltoi's  dor  Entdcckuiigon ; 

Stutt^ard,  1877. 
PcHchol,  OHt-ar.    (iCHchit-hto  dor  Erdkundc  ;  Miinchcii,  1877.    Ed. 

iSophuH  Tlugc. 
Peschei,  OMcar.     VolUcrkundo. 

Peyrere,  Isaac  do  la.     Relation  du  (rroonland  ;  Paris,  1663. 
Plato  (AriHtokles),  428-348  b.c.     Opera  Omnia,  Ed.  Marsilins 

Ficinus,  Franeofurti,  1602 ;  Ed.  Uodfredus  Stallbaum ;  Ed. 

Imnumuel  Bekkorus. 
Pontanus,  Jo*^.  iMaciuH.     Rorum  Danicarum  liiHtoria;  Amstolo- 

danii,  1631 — together  with  Do  Situ  Danio). 
Poti-haHt,  Augu.stus.    Rogosta  Pontificuni  Ronianorum  ;  Borolini, 

1874. 
Proscott,   William   H.     History   of  the   Conquest   of  Mexico; 

Philadelphia,  J.  B.  Lippineott  Co. 
Prescott,  William  H.     History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru ;  Bos- 
ton, 1857. 
Prescott,  William  H.    Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 
Procopius.     De  Bello  Gothico;  Basilea;,  1531. 
Quatrefages,  A   de.    The  Human  Species ;  New  York,  1893. 

Note. — This  work  is  referred  to  when  not  otherwise  directed. 

Quatrefages,  A.  de.     Histoire  generale  des  Races  humaines. 
Rafinesque,  C.  S.     The  American  Nations ;  Philadelphia,  1836. 
Rafn,  Chas.  C.     Antiquitates  Americanse  sive  Scriptores  Sep- 
tentrionales  Rerum  Ante-Columbianarum  ;  Hafnia>,  1837. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  ever  made  to  the 
study  of  the  history  and  geography  of  our  continent. 

Rafn,  Chas.  C.     Memoire  sur  la  Decouverto  de  I'Ameriquo  au 
Dixieme  Siecle ;  Copenhague,  1843. 

This  synopsis  of  the  former  work  haa  been  translated  into 
almost  every  language. 

Raynaldi,  Odericus.     Annales  Ecclesiastici ;  Lucas,  1747,  seq, 

Raynaldi  is,  beyond  a  doubt,  the  most  reliable  of  all  church 
historians. 

Reclus,  Elisee.    The  Ocean,  Atmosphere,  and  Life ;  New  York, 
1873. 


PRINTED    LITKRATURE   CONSULTED. 


xxi 


Ilocords  of  the  Amorifan  ('iitlu)lio  IliHtorical  Society  of  Phila- 

(i(>l|iliia,  Hovoral  voliinu's. 
V  EeevcH,   A.    Miildloton.     Tlio    Findiiiif  of  VVinclaiKl  tlu>  (Jood  ; 

London,  181)0, 
RotziiiH.     PrcHcnt  State  of  Ethnolotyy  in   l{elation  to  the  F'orm 

of  the  Human  Skull ;  from  Smitlisoidan  IJeport,  185!). 
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An  Italian  tranHJation. 
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■,    Rohrhacher.     lliHtoire  Universello  de  I'Egliso  Catholique  ;  Pans, 

1850. 
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BreiHgau,  1833. 
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Hamburgischo  Festschrift,  T.  I.;  Hamburg,  1892. 
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Sahagun  wrote  from  personal  experience  and  most  carefully 
received  information  from  the  natives. 


Sanson,  Nicholas  and  William,  Nevus  Orbis  sive  Atlantis  In- 
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xxu 


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This  is  a  selection  of  well-«tudied  essays  from  several  modern 
writers. 


PRINTED   LITERATURE  CONSULTED.  xxiii 

Woutors,  ironricuH  (Juiliolmus.     Illstori.o  EccloHiasticw  Co.npon- 
(lium;  Lovjinii,  1858. 

VVyfliot.     lliHtoire  univoi-Hollo  dos  IndoH  Oriontalos  ot  Ocoidon- 
talcs. 

VVyfliet.     DoscriptioniH  Ptoloirmicju  Auirmontuin ;  od.  1603. 

Zahni,  J.  A.     Rihlo,  Sc-iciico,  and  Faith  j  Baltimore,  1895 

Zahvn  J.  A.     The  A^o  of  the  Human  Raeo.     In  American  Cath- 

ohc  Quarterly  Review,  Vol.  XVIII. 
Zeno  Carlo,  ap.  P.  Amat.      Dello  Scoprimonto  doll'  IhoIo  Fris- 

landa  .  .  .  and  Soptontrionaliuni  Partiinn  Nova  Tabula. 


AUTHORS  QUOTED. 


m 


Abbott,  Dr. 

yElianus,  Claudius ;  first  and  sec- 
ond centuries  a.c. 

^ngus  Cele-D6.    Book  of  Litanies. 

Agassi  z. 

Agnese,  Battista. 

Albertus  Magnus. 

Albornoz. 

Alcuin, 

Alderete,  Bernardo  de. 

Allegre.  Historia  de  la  Compafiia 
de  Jesus  :  Nueva  Espafia. 

Ameghino.  La  i^ntiguedad  del 
Hombre  en  la  Plata. 

American  Geologist :  A  Review. 

American  Naturalist,  The :  A  Re- 
view. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus. 

Anderson,  John  J.  A  Grammar- 
school  History  oJ  the  United 
States. 

Andrews,  Dr. 

Annals  of  Science,  Cleveland. 

Anthropological  Institute  of  Great 
Britain,  May,  1885. 

Anthropological  Review,  No.  XIII. 

Appuleius  ;  second  century  a.c.  De 
Mundo. 

Archeeologia  Americana. 

Archivos  do  Museu  Nacional,  1876. 

Ari  hinn  Frode.  Landniimabok ; 
or,  Register  of  the  taking  Posses- 
sion of  the  land.  It  contains  a 
full  account  of  all  the  early  set- 
tlers in  Iceland.  It  is  of  the 
same  character,  though  vastly 
superior  to  the  English  ' '  Domes- 
day Book,"  and  is  probably  the 
most  complete  record  of  the  kind 
ever  made  by  any  nation.  It 
contains  the  names  of  three 
xxiv 


thousand  persons  and  of  fourteen 
hundred  places.  It  gives  a  cor- 
rect account  of  the  genealogies 
of  the  families,  and  brief  notices 
of  personal  achievements.  It  was 
begun  by  Frode,  born  1067,  died 
1148,  and  was  continued  by  Kal- 
stegg,  Styrmer,  and  Thorsden, 
and  completed  by  Hauk  Erland- 
son,  lagman  and  governor  of  Ice- 
land, who  died  in  the  year  1334. 
(De  Costa,  Discovery,  p.  21.) 

Aristoteles,  384-322  b.c. 

Arius  Montanus. 

Arngrim.    Chronicon  Islandire. 

Arngrim,  J  ohnsson  or  Jonas.    Cry- 
mogaia ;  Hamburg,  1610. 

Arnkel,  Trogillus. 

Arnobius.     Adversus  Gentes. 

Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Transac- 
tions of  the. 

Aspa. 

Atwat«r,  Caleb. 

Aubin.     In    M^moires    des    Anti- 
quaires  du  Nord,  1840-1844. 

Aughey,  Dr. 

Avezac,  d'.    lies  d'Afrique. 

Azurara.     Chronica  de  Guine. 

Babbitt,  Miss. 

Bacon  of  Verulam.     Nova  Atlantis. 

Bacon,  Roger. 

Bairos,  de. 

Bakewell. 

Balboa. 

Baldwin.     Ancient  America. 

Bandelier,  A.  F. 

Bardson    or  Bardsen,   Ivar.      De- 
scriptio  Groenlandiue. 

Barry.      History    of    the    Orkney 
Islands. 

Barton,  B.  S. 


V    i 


// 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


XXV 


I  fourteen 
'68  a  cor- 
nealogies 
if  notices 
s.  It  was 
067,  died 
I  by  Kal- 
'horsden, 
:  Erland- 
)r  of  Ice- 
iar  1334. 
21.) 


idia?. 
IS.    Cry- 


ps. 
'ransac- 


Anti- 


[lantie. 


De- 
Ikney 


Bassus,  Frank. 

Baxter. 

Baylies. 

Beatty. 

Bede  the  Venerable,  St.    De  Ele- 

mentis  Philosophiic. 
.  Behaim,  Martin. 

Beninca«a,  Andrew. 

Benzoni. 

Bernal  Diaz  del  Castillo.  Historia 
Verdadera  de  la  Conquista  de  la 
Nueva  Espafia. 

He  was  an  eye-witnes  of  the 
facts  he  relates. 

Bernaldez.  Storia  del  Messico,  and 
Historia  de  los  Reges  Catholicos, 
MS. 

Betanzos. 

Bianco,  Andrea. 

Bla«  Valera. 

Blefken,  Ditmar. 

Blocius. 

Bordone,  Benedetto.  Isole  del 
Mondo. 

Boscana. 

Boson,  Card. 

Boturini. 

Boule. 

Bowen,  Benjamin  F.  America  dis- 
covered by  the  Welsh. 

Boyce,  Dr. 

Brackenbridge. 

Bradford.     American    Antiquities. 

Brand,  Professor. 

Braaseur  de  Bourbourg.  Histoire 
des  Nations  Civilis^es  du  Me- 
xique  et  de  I'Am^rique  Cen- 
trale. 

Brinton,  Daniel  G.     Myths. 

Broca,  Paul.     liaces  of  Men. 

Bruca,  James. 

Brulio,  Joaquin. 

Bryant,  William  Cnllen.  A  Popu- 
lar History  of  the  United  States. 

Brynjulvson,  Dr.  Gislius.  In  An- 
tiquariske  Annaler,  Band  IV. 

Bueno,  Ramon. 

Burmeister. 

BuBsteus.  Ed.  Schedarum  Arii 
PoIyhistoriH. 


BuHtamente.  Editor  of  Sahagun's 
Historia  General. 

Butler,  Alban. 

Cabot,   Sebastian.     Map   of    1544. 

Cabrera.    Teatro. 

Camargo,  Diego  Mufloz.  Historia 
de  Tlaxcala. 

Camargo  is  a  Tlascalan  mestee 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  a 
very  rehable  historian. 

Cano,  John  del. 

Caradoc.     History  of  Wales. 

Carli. 

Caro,  Rodrigo. 

Cartier,  Jacques.  Discours  du  Voy- 
age fait  par  le  capitaine  Jacques 
Cartier  en  la  terre  neufve  de 
Canada.     Ed.  Michelant. 

Carver. 

Caspari. 

Casterano,  Carlo  Horatii  da. 

Catlin.    American  Indians. 

Chambers's  Journal.  ^ 

Champlain.  Les  Voyages  du  Sr. 
de  Champlain. 

Cliarton,  E.  Voyageurs  Anciens 
et  Modernes. 

Charton,  E.     Le  Tour  du  Monde. 

Chrysostom,  St.  John. 

Cicero,  M.  T.,  10«>-43  b.c. 

Cieza  de  Leon,  Pedro.  Cronica 
del  Peru. 

The  author  (a.d.  1528-1560) 
was  an  eye-witness  of  nearly  all 
the  facts  stated  by  him. 

Clavigero.  Storia  Antiqua  del  Mes- 
sico. 

Clavius,  Claudius. 

Clement  of  Alexandria,  St. 

Clinton,  De  Witt. 

Cluver  or  Cluverius.  Works  ;  ed. 
1739. 

CogoUudo,  Diego  Lopez.  Historia 
de  Yucathan  ;  Madrid,  1688. 

Colgan. 

Cordeyro. 

Cosa,  Juan  de  la. 

Cosmaa  Indicopleustes. 

Court  de  Gebelin.    Monde  Primitif. 

Crantor. 


XXVI 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


Crantzius,  Albertus.  Danise,  Sue- 
cise,  Norvagiee  Chronaca. 

Crawford,  T.  P. 

Creason,  Hilborn  T. 

Croll. 

Crowe. 

Gushing. 

Cuvier.  Discours  sur  les  Revolu- 
tions du  Globe. 

Dalechamp. 

Dall,  Professor. 

Daly.    In  the  Gentleman's  Magazine. 

Danforth,  Dr. 

Darwin.     Origin  of  Speciea. 

Darwin.    Descent  of  Man. 

Davalos.    Miscel.  Austr.  CoUoq. 

David  Camerarius.  Calendar  of 
Saints. 

Dawkins. 

Dawson,  Sir  John  William.  Fossil 
Men. 

De  Goes,  Damiao.  Chronica  do 
Serenissimo  principe  D.  Joao. 

Deluc. 

Democratic  Review. 

Desceliers,  Peter.     Map  of  1544. 

Desor. 

Diaz.  Itindraire.  In  Ternaux- 
Compans,  S4rie  I. ,  T.  X. 

Dickine,  F.  V. 

Dicuil.     De  Mensura  Orbis  Terrse. 

Diodonis  of  Sicily,  100  b.c. 

Dixon. 

Dolomieu.     Journal  de  Physique. 

Donnelly,  Ignatius.  Atlantis  ;  New 
York,  1882. 

Diimmler.    Ostfr.  Reich. 

Duponceau. 

Eaaton,  Peter. 

Ebeling.  Erdbeschreibung  und 
Geschichte  von  Amerika. 

Eccard.    Corpus  Historicum. 

Edrisi,  Arabian  geographer  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

Eggers,  von. 

Elliott,  E.  T. 

Emerson. 

Eratosthenes,  276-194  b.c. 

Ethan. 

Ethnological  Society,  American. 


Euripides,  480-407  b.c.     Helena. 

Euthymiua. 

Evans. 

Fagnani. 

Falb,  Dr.  R. 

Figuier,  M.  L.     Les  Merveilles  de 

1' Industrie ;   Paris,  Fume,  s.  d. 

(1873). 
Finseua,  Adrian.     Flagelli. 
Fitzroy. 
Fontaine.      How  the  World  was 

peopled. 
Forchhammer. 
Fordun.      Scotichronicon ;     about 

A.D.  1380. 
Formaleoni,  Vincenzo. 
Fra  Mauro. 
Fremont. 

Fuenleal,  bishop  of  San  Domingo. 
Gagneeius. 
Galardi. 
Galindo. 
Galvano. 
Garcia. 
Gardner,  Job. 
Garibay. 

Gatschet  and  Harvey. 
Gaudran,  Dr. 
Gay.        Popular   History    of    the 

United  States. 
Geike,  James. 

Genebrardus.     Chronography. 
Geoffroy  of  Monmouth,  bishop  of 

Saint  Asaph  in  1152. 
Gervasius  of  Tilbury.     Otia  Impe- 

rialia. 
Gibbon.    Decline  and  Fall. 
Gibs,  Dr.  George. 
Giebel.    Tagesfragen. 
Gilbert,  G.  K.     In  Proceedings   of 

the  American  Association. 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey. 
Giordan. 

Gregory  of  Nazianz,  St. 
Gooding,  Jos. 
Goodnow,  I.  P. 
Goodrich,  Aaron.      A  History  of 

the  Character  and  Achievements 

of  the  so-called  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


XXVll 


Gregg. 

Gregory,  St.     Moralia. 

Greenwood,  Isaac. 

Gronlands  Historiske  Mindesmaer- 
ker  ;  or,  Greenland's  Historical 
Monuments. 

Grotius  ( De  Groot) ,  Hugo. 

Guzman,  Lewis  de.  Indian  Expe- 
ditions. 

Haeckel,  Ernst.  History  of  Crea- 
tion. 

Haldingham,  Richard. 

Hales.     Analysis  of  Chronology. 

Hamconius.     Frisia. 

Hanno,   drca   500  b.c.      ntpiirXovt. 

Harcourt. 

Harris.    Harrison's  Discourse. 

Harrisse.    Notes  on  Columbus. 

Hasselbach.  Codex  Pomeraniee 
Diplomaticus. 

Haupt. 

Headley,  P.  C.    The  Island  of  Fire. 

Heath,  Dunbar.  In  Anthropo- 
logical Review,  No.  XIII. 

Heaviside,  John  T.  C.  American 
Antiquities  ;  or,  the  New  World 
the  Old. 

Heckewelder,  Johann.  History  of 
the  Indian  Nations  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  Philadelphia,  1818. 

Hellwald,  von.  In  Smithsonian 
Report,  1866. 

Herbert. 

Heredia  y  Sarmiento.    Sermones. 

Herodotus,  died  408  B.C.    Histories. 

Hesiod,  900-800  b.c.  Works  and 
Days. 

Higginson,  Thomas  Wentworth. 
Young  Folks'  History  of  the 
United  States. 

Hilary,  St. 

Hildreth. 

Holm.  Description  of  New  Swe- 
den. 

Holmes.  Glacial  Man  in  the  Tren- 
ton Gravels. 

Homer,  1000-900  b.c. 

Hommel. 

Honorius  of  Autun.  De  Imagine 
Mundi. 


Hopkins,  Evan. 

Horace,  Flaccus  Q.,  65-9  b.c. 

Horsford.  Landfall  of  Leif  Erik- 
son. 

Humboldt,  Friedr.  Heinr.  Alex, 
von.  Essai  politique  sur  la  Nou- 
velle  Espagne  ;  Paris,  1811. 

Humboldt,  Friedr.  Heinr.  Alex, 
von.     Kosmos  ;  1845-48. 

Humboldt,  Friedr.  Heinr.  Alex, 
von.  Monuments  des  Peuples 
indigenes  de  I'Am^rique. 

Hume.     England  ;  ed.  1822. 

Huxley. 

Hyggeden,  Ranulf. 

Icazbalceta,  Gioachino  Garcias. 
Documentos  para  la  Historia  de 
Mexico  ;  1864. 

Institute,  Anthropological,  of  Great 
Britain ;  May,  1885. 

Isidore  of  Seville.     Origines. 

Ixtlilxochitl,  Fernando  de  Alva. 
Relaciones,  and  Historia  Chi- 
chimeca,  MS.  ;  transl.  by  Ter- 
naux-Compans. 

Ixtlilxochitl,  a  lineal  descend- 
ant of  the  kings  of  Tezcuco,  died 
in  the  beginning  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century.  His  works 
contain  much  reliable  informa- 
tion. 

Jackson. 

Jacques  de  Vitry.  The  World's 
Map. 

James. 

Jansenius. 

Jerome,  St. 

John  a  Boflco.     Bibl.  Floriac. 

John  Chrysostom,  St. 

John  of  Halifax.    De  Sacro  Bosco. 

John  of  Salisbury. 

Johnston.  Account  of  the  Present 
State  of  the  Indian  Tribes  in- 
habiting Ohio.  In  Archseologia 
Americana,  T.  I. 

Jordanes. 

Journal  of  Geology. 

Juarros. 

Joubainville.  Les  Premiers  Habi- 
tants de  1' Europe. 


XXVlll 


AUTHORS    QUOTED. 


I 


Jubinal,  Achille.  La  Logende  La- 
tine  de  S.  Brandaines ;  Paris, 
1836. 

Judacis,  Cornelius  de. 

Julian,  St. 

Kallenbach. 

Kane,  Dr.     Arctic  Explorations. 

Kaulen. 

Kendal,  A.  E. 

Kes,  P. 

Kingsborougli,  Lord.  Mexican 
Antiquities ;  London,  1820. 

Klaproth.  Nouveau  Journal  Asia- 
tique,  18.32. 

Klemm.     Culturgeschichte. 

Kleuipin.  Pommersches  Urkun- 
denbuch. 

Kneeland,  Samuel.  An  American 
in  Iceland. 

Kneeland,  Samuel.     Wonders. 

Kohl.  In  second  series,  first  vol- 
ume, of  the  Documentary  His- 
tory of  Maine :  A  History  of  the 
Discovery  of  the  East  of  Maine. 

Koppmann.  Zeitschrift  des  Ve- 
reins  fiir  Hamb.  Gesch. 

Kosmos :  A  Iteview. 

Krantz,  Albert.  Rerum  Germani- 
carum  Historia. 

Labbe.     Concilia. 

Lacerda,  J.  B.  de.  Contribu^oes 
ao  Estudio  anthropologico  das 
Eagas  indigenas  do  Brazil. 

La  Conte.     Elements  de  G^ologie. 

Lacroix  Chevri^res  de  Saint  Vallier, 
John  Bapt.  de.  Estat  present  de 
I'Eglise  etde  la  Colonie  Francjaise 
dans  la  Nouvelle  France. 

Lafitiui.  Mceurs  des  Sauvages 
Am^ricains. 

Lagos,  Ferreira. 

Laing.    Ed.  the  Heimskringla  Saga. 

Lallemant,  Charles.  Relation  de 
la  Nouvelle  France,  1626. 

Landa.     Relacion. 

Lankester,  E.  R. 

La  P^rouse. 

Laplace.    Exposition. 

Lappenberg,  Jo.  M.  Hamburg- 
isches  Urkundenbuch. 


Codex  MS. 


Lloyd,      Humphrey, 


Larousse.    Dictionnaire. 

Latham. 

Leidy. 

Leland,  Chas.  G.  Fusang,  or  The 
Discovery  of  America  by  Chinese 
Buddhist  Priests  in  the  Fifth 
Century. 

Lelewel  and  Kohl.  A  History  of 
the  Discovery  of  Maine.  In  Doc- 
umentary History  of  the  State  of 
Maine,  second  series,  first  vol- 
ume. 

Lenormant,  Fr.  Les  PremiiSres 
Civilizations. 

Leo  Castrensis.     Apologetics. 

Lequereux. 

Leslie,  Jameson,  and  Murray.  Dis- 
covery and  Adventures  in  the 
Polar  Seas. 

Lewis,  H.  C. 

Lieber. 

Lindenbrog. 

Lisboa,  de. 

Llwyd     or 
translator  of  Caradoc. 

Lok,  Michael. 

London  Geographical  Society, 
VIII. 

Longinus,  Caesar.  Extract  of  All 
Journies. 

Los  Rios,  Pedro  de. 

Lubbock,  Sir  John.  L' Homme 
avant  I'Histoire.  A  translation 
of  Barbier. 

Ludewig.  Literature  of  the  Amer- 
ican Languages. 

Lund,  Dr. 

Lyell,  Sir  Charles. 

Lyschander,  Claudius. 

Macgregor.     Progress  of  America. 

Macpherson.  History  of  Great 
Britain. 

Macrobius.     Circa  a.d.  395-423. 

Magazine,  Nineteenth  Century. 

Major,  R.  Henry.  The  Voyages 
of  the  Venetian  Brothers,  Nicol6 
and  Antonio  25eno,  to  the  North- 
ern Seas  in  the  Fourteenth  Cen- 
tury ;  London,  1873.  (Hakluyt 
Soc.) 


AUTHORS    QUOTED. 


XXIX 


Major,  R.  II.    The  Site  of  the  Lost 

Colony  of  Greenland  detennined. 
Maldonatus. 
Mulvenda.     Antechrist. 
Mandeville,  John.     Voiage. 
Manet.     Notions  historiques  sur  la 

ville  de  S.  Malo. 
Marana,  Panl.    Turkish  Spy. 
MarcellinuH. 
Marchand. 
Marco  Polo.     Viaggi. 
Marimis  Tyrius. 
Marsh,  Ph. 
Mather,  Cotton.     In  Philosophical 

Transactions  for  1741. 
^lathieu. 
Maurelle. 

Maurice.     Indian  Antiquities. 
Mayer,  Brantz.     Mexico  as  it  was. 
McGee. 
Meares. 
Mecklenburgisches  Urkunden- 

buch. 
Mela,  Pomponius.     De  Situ  Orbis. 
Menant.      El<5ments   d'Epigraphie 

Assyrienne. 
Mendieta.     Historia  Ecclesiastica. 
Mendoza,  Gonzalo. 
Mercator,  Gerhard. 
MesseniuH,  Johannes.     Scandia  II- 

lustnita. 
Metz,  Dr.  C.  L. 
Meyer. 
Michael,  F. 
Mindesniaerker.       See    Gronlands 

Historiske  Mindesmaerker. 
Molina. 
Montesinos,  Fernando.     Memorias 

Antiguas    Historiale^    del    Peru, 

and  Annales. 
Moraez,  Em.  de. 

Moran,  Card.     Acta  Sti.  Brendani. 
Moreau  de  Daniartin.     Histoire  de 

I'Acadie  frangaise. 
Moreau  de  Damartin.     In  Institut 

Historique,  T.  IX.  :  La  Pierre  de 

Taunton. 
Morgan,  H.  L. 
Morse,  E.  S. 
Mortillet,  de. 


Morton,  Sanuiel  George,  M.D. 
Crania  Americana. 

Moses  of  Chorene. 

Motolinia,  the  Indian  name  ("  poor 
man")  of  Toribia  de  Benavente, 
O.  S.  F.,  a  zealous  and  saintly 
missionary  in  ('entral  America 
during  the  first  half  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Historia  de  los 
IndioH  de  Nueva  Espafia.  "As 
his  integrity  and  his  means  of 
information  are  unquestionable, 
his  work  is  of  the  highest  au- 
thority in  relation  to  the  an- 
tiquities of  the  country  and  its 
condition  at  the  i)erif)d  of  the 
Conquest."  (Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  ii.  93,  He(i. ) 

Miiller.    Sagabibliothek. 

Miiller,  Johannes.  Philosophy  of 
Man. 

Miiller,  Max.  Amerikanische  Ur- 
religionen. 

Munch,  P.  A.  Geographiske  Op- 
lysninger  om  f)rknoeerne.  In 
Annaler,  1852. 

Munch,  P.  A.  Det  Norske  Folks 
Historic. 

Murray,  Andrew. 

Murray,  Thomas. 

Mustero.    Universal  Cosmography. 

Nature :  A  Review. 

New  American  Cycioptedia. 

Newbery,  Professor. 

Newcomb,  Professor  S.  Popular 
Astronomy. 

NicephoruH  of  Constantinople. 

Nieremberg,  John  Eusebius.  His- 
toriie  Natura'. 

Nineteenth  Century.    A  magazine. 

Nordenskjijld.     Fac-simile  Atlas. 

Nott  and  Gliddon.  Indigenous 
Races  of  the  Earth. 

Nouvelles  Annales  de«  Voyages. 

Nufiez  de  la  Vega. 

Odericus  Vitalis,  a.d.  1075-1150. 
Historia  Ecclesiastica. 

He    was    the  Chronist  of  the 
Normans.  A  most  reliable  author. 

O'Halloran. 


XXX 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


ill 


iJi 


Olaffien  and  Pavelsen.  Reiae  durch 
Island. 

Olives  de  Majorca,  Jaime. 

Ondegardo.     Relaciones,  MS. 

His  reports  are  among  the  best 
authorities  in  regard  to  the  an- 
cient institutions  of  the  Incas. 

Opmer. 

Oppert. 

Ordofiez  y  Aguiar. 

Origen. 

Orosius. 

Orozco  y  Berra.  Geografia  de  las 
Lenguas  de  Mexico. 

Ortelius. 

Palacio. 

Palfrey.    History  of  New  England. 

Palmerius. 

Panvinius. 

Pareto,  Bartholomew  de. 

Peixoto. 

Peringskiold.  Ed.  Snorre  Sturlu- 
Bon's  Heimskringla. 

Perizonius. 

Perrault,  Julien.  Relation  de  quel- 
ques  particularit^s  du  lieu  et  des 
habitants  du  Cap  Breton.  In 
Relations  des  J^suites. 

P^tau. 

Philo. 

Philoponi,  Honorius.  Navigationes 
Patrum  Ord.  S.  Bened. 

Picigano. 

Pickering. 

Piedrahita.    Conquista  de  Granada. 

Pilling,  James  Constantine.  Bib- 
liography of  the  Eskimo  Lan- 
guage. In  Bureau  of  Ethnology 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
1887. 

Pimentel.  Memorie  sobre  la  Raza 
Indigena. 

Pindar,  522-441  b.c. 

Pifleda. 

Pinkerton.     Histor.  Scot. 

Pinstus. 

Pizarro,  Fernando. 

Pizzigsini. 

Plinius,  Cajua  Secundus,  a.d.  23-79, 
Historia  Naturalis. 


Plutarch,  .v.d.  50-125. 

Ponte,  Joannes  a.  Utriusque  Mo- 
narchic. .  .  . 

Popular  Science  Monthly. 

Poseidonius,  1()5-130  b.c. 

Postel,  William  de. 

Postlewayt. 

Powell,  Major.     Contributions. 

Prestwich.     Geology. 

Priest.     American  Antiquities. 

Proceedings  of  the  Boston  Natural 
History  Society. 

Proclus,  A.D.  412-485. 

Prunes,  Matthew. 

Ptolemeus,  Claudius,  born  circa  a.d. 
70. 

Pughe,  Dr.  W.  D. ,  and  Williams. 

Pulci,  Luigi,  II  Morgante  Maggiore. 

Putnam. 

Pytheas,   fourth  century  b.c.     n«- 

piirKovt, 

Raffinson. 

Ramos,  Alonso.     History  of  Copa- 

cavana. 
Ramusio.     Raccolta  di  Viaggi. 
Rask.     In  Massachusetts  Historical 

Society  Proceedings,  XVIII. 
Ree.     Cyclopaedia. 
Reisch,  George. 
Reiset. 
Relandua. 

Rembertus,  S.     Vita.  Si.  Anscharii. 
Review,      Anthropological,       No. 

XIII. 
Review,  Democratic. 
Revista  da   Expoai^ao    Brazileira, 

1882,  by  J.  B.  de  Lacerda. 
Rhaban  Maurus,  a.d.  774-856. 
Riant.     Expeditions  et  P^lerinages 

des  Scandinaves  en  Terre  Saiute 

au  temps  des  Croisades. 
Ribadeneira.      Flower  of   Saints  ; 

Life  of  St.  Thomas. 
Ridpath,  John  Clark.     A  History 

of  the  United  States. 
Rink,  Dr.     Eskimoiske  Eventyr  og 

Saga. 
Rio.     Description. 
Robert  d'Auxerre.    Map,  World's 

Image. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


XXXI 


ne- 


Eonian,  one  of  the  twelve  first  mis- 
sionaries of  Hispaniola. 
Roth,  Dr. 
Ruiz,   Antonio.      Conquista   Espi- 

ritual  del  Paraguay. 
Ruscelli. 
Ruysch. 
Sabin. 
Sagas.      As  to  their  authority,  see 

Chapter  XIV.  of  Vol.  II. 
Saga.     Annales  Isl.  Regii. 
Saga.     Annales  Island.     Vetustis- 

simi. 
Saga.    Annals  of  Gotekalk. 
Saga.    Annals  of  Resen. 
Saga.     Einar  Sokkeson. 
Saga.     Eirikr  hinn  Raudha. 
Saga.    Eyrbyggja. 
Saga,    Flaomanna.    In  Gronlands 

Historiske  Mindesinaerker. 
Saga.     Flateyarb6k. 
Saga.      Fostbroedhra.      In    Gron- 
lands Historiske  Mindesmaerker. 
Saga.    Gripla. 
Saga.    Hoyer's  Annals. 
Saga.    Hungrvaka  ;  published  Haf- 

niffi,  1778. 
Saga.    Islendingab6k. 
Saga.     Islenskir  Annaler. 
Saga.      Konungab6k,     or    Codex 

Frisianus. 
Saga,  Kristni. 
Saga.    Landndmab6k. 
Saga.     Logman's  Annals. 
Saga.     Olaf ,  St. ,  or  Heimskringla. 
Saga.     Olaf  Tryggvason. 
Saga.    Rimbegla. 
Saga,  Skalholt.    Discovered  in  1863 

near  the  church  of  Skalholt  by 

Ph.  Mai^h  (?). 
Saga.     Thorfinn    Karlsefne,     ap. 

Rafn,  Antiq.  Amer. 
Saga.    MS.  No.  192  of  Arna-Mag- 

neana  Collection,  Copenhagen. 
Saga.     MS.   736  of  the  Arna-Mag- 

neana  Collection. 
Saga.    MS.  770c.  of  the  Arna-Mag- 

neana  Collection. 
Sahamayhua. 
Saint- Vallier,  de,  6v^ue  de  Que- 


bec. Estat  present  de  rtglise  et 
de  le  Colonie  fran^^aise  dans  la 
Nouvelle  France. 

Salazar,  Stephen  de. 

Sanchez  de  Huelva,  Alonso.  Pre- 
cursores  fabulosos  de  Colon.  In 
La  Illustracion  Espafiola  y  Ame- 
ricana ;  Madrid,  30  de  Marzo, 
1892. 

Sanclioniaton,  2000  b.c. 

Sarmiento,  Juan  de.  Relacion  de 
la  sucesion  y  govierno  de  los 
Yngas  Seflores  naturales  que 
fueron  de  laa  Provinciae  del  Peru. 

Saussure. 

Sayce. 

Scaliger. 

Schliemann,  Dr. 

Schoolcraft.     Archaeology. 

Schraeder. 

Schr    ler.    St.  Brandan  ;  Erlangen. 

Schroeter.  In  Antiquar.  Tidskrift, 
1849-1861. 

Schuck,  Professor. 

Science.    A  Review. 

Seneca,  Lucius  A.,  a.d.  2-65. 

Sewall,  Stephen. 

Siguenza. 

Simpson. 

Simson.  Jahrbiicher  des  Frank- 
ischen  Reichs. 

Skardza,  Bjorn  Jonas. 

Skretchly. 

Smith.     Human  Species. 

Smith,  Dr.  Jer.  W.  C.  Dialogues 
on  the  Northmen. 

Smith,  Toulmin. 

Squier,  E.  G.  Serpent  S}Tnbol  in 
America. 

Stapleton,  Thom.  De  Tribus  Tho- 
mis. 

Steinbeck.     Hand-Kalender. 

Stephanius,  Sigurd. 

Stephens,  John  L.  Incidents  of 
Travel  in  Central  America. 

Stephens,  John  L.  Incidents  of 
Travel  in  Yucatan;  London, 
1843. 

Stiles,  Ezra. 

Stolberg,  Count. 


XX  xn 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


Strabo,  ii.c.  <iO-A.n.  24.  Geogra- 
phica. 

Sturluson,  Snorre. 

Siiida«. 

Tacitus,  Publiiis  Cornelius,  a.d. 
54-117.  (ierinania,  and  Vita 
Agricoliu. 

Tait.  Recent  Advances  on  Physi- 
cal Science. 

Thi'odat,  Siigard.  Histoire  du  Ca- 
nada. 

Theodoretus. 

Theophnwtes,  b.c.  370-288. 

Theophylactus. 

Theopoinpus,  born  circa  358  B.C. 

Thevet.  Cosniographie  Universelle. 

Thordaon,  Stnrla. 

Thorlac,  Uudbmnd. 

Thorlac,  Theodore. 

Thorowgood,  T.  Jewes  in  Amer- 
ica ;  1650. 

Tiele. 

Tostatus. 

Tschudi.     Peruvian  Antiquities. 

Tylor.    Analiuao. 

Tylor,  E.  B.  Old  Scandinavian 
Civilization  among  the  Modern 
Esquimaux,  in  Journal  of  the 
Anthropological  Institute,  1884, 
XIII. 

Udalric  of  Babenberg. 

Ulpius. 

Ulster  Annals. 

Upham,  Warren. 

Usher. 

Vallency,  Colonel  Charles. 

Valsequa,  Majorcan  geographer. 

Vatable. 

Vater.     Mithridates. 

Vaugondy,  Robert  de.  Orbis  VetUB, 
17()2. 

Velasco.    Historia  de  Quito. 

Venegas. 

Verandri^re,  de. 

Vetancourt.    Teatro  Mex. 

Veytia.  Historia  Antigua  de  Mex- 
ico. 

Vicelinus.  Codex  MS. :  Vicelinsb6k. 

Vincent  of  Beauvais.  Speculum 
Majus,  and  Speculum  Historiale. 


Virchow. 

Vii-gil,  70-19  B.C. 

Vital  is,  Odericus.     IIi8t^)ria  Eccle- 

siawtica 
Vivier  de  Saint  Martin.     Nouveau 

Diction nalre  de  ( Jc'-ographie  Uni- 

verst'lle,  and  Histoire  de  la  G6o- 

graphie. 
Vogt,  Carl. 
A'oHsius. 
Wafer,   Lionel.      A    New    Voyage 

and  Description  of  the  Lsthmus 

of  America ;  London,  KM). 
Wagner,   A.     (jeschichte  der  Ur- 

welt. 
Waldeck. 
Wallace.     In  Nineteenth  Century, 

October,  1887  :  Antiquity  of  Man 

in  North  America. 
Wallace,  James.     Account  of  the 

Orkney  Islands. 
Warden,  D.  B.    Recherches  sur  les 

Antiquitds   de    I'Am^rique   Sep- 

tentrionale. 
Waren,   James.      De    Scriptoribus 

Hibernis. 
Washington,  Secretary  of  the  Lon- 
don Geographical  Society. 
West  Indische  Spieghel. 
What«ly,  Richard.     Origin  of  Civ- 
ilization. 
Whedon,  Dr. 
Whitney,  Professor.     In  Memoirs 

of  the  Museum  of  Comparative 

Zoology,  Vol.  VI. 
Whittlesey,  Colonel  Charles. 
Wilhelmi,      Karl.        Heidelberger 

Jahrbiicher  der  Literatur,  1839. 
Wilhelmi,   Karl.      Island,   Hvitra- 

mannaland,  Gronland,  und  Vin- 

land ;  Heidelberg,  1842. 
Wilson,   Dr.    Daniel.      Prehistoric 

Man. 
Winckler. 
Winthroj),  James. 
Woldike.     A  Dissertation  upon  the 

Origin  of  the  Greenland  tongue. 

In  Scripta  a  Societate  Hafniensi, 

Pars  II. 
Woodward. 


AUTHORS   QUOTED. 


XXXIU 


Wormekjold.  Skandinaviske  Lit- 
eratur-Selskabs  Skrifter,  1814. 

Wrangul.  Nouvellea  Aniiales  des 
Voyages. 

Wright,  Professor  G.  Frederick, 
(leology. 

Wright,  Thoma«.  Preface  to  edi- 
tum  of  The  Early  Engli.sh  Metri- 
cal and  Early  Englisii  Prose  Life 
of  St.  Brandau. 


Wyinan,  Dr. 

Zaltieri. 

Zesterniann,  Dr.     In  Ethnological 

Society,    American    Proceedings 

in  1851. 

Zieglerus,  Jacobus.     Schondia. 
Zurla,  Card. 

Znrita.     Rapport :  A  translation  of 
Ternaux-Compans. 


CONTENTS. 


VOLUME    I. 
AMERICAN    ABORIGINES. 

PAOE 

TIluHti'iition :     Mound-builderH'-   WorkH    near    C'hillicothc, 

RoHs  County,  Ohio aptid  iii 

Prefueo v 

Archives  and  MamiscnptH  ooiiHulted ix 

Printed  Literature  consulted xi 

AuthorH  quoted xxiv 

ContentH xxxv 

IlIuHtration  :  The  World's  Phinisphore apnd  1 

IHuBtration  :  Mexico  and  Central  America apud  I 

CHAPTEIl   I. 

ORUHN   OF  THE   AMERICAN   MAN. 

Darwin's  Moneron  evolving  into  Man 1 

Our  Indians'  Sudden  Transmutation  of  Species  admitted  by 

the  Latest  Scientists 3 

Human  Descent  from  an  Ape,  if  not  Disgraceful,  yet  Un- 
scientific    4 

The  Ape-Man  extremely  Ancient 6 

The  Ape-Man  not  an  American  Autochthon 8 

Did  God  create  Several  Human  Races  ? 9 

The  American  Red  Skins,  no  Autochthonous  Race 10 

Unity  of  the  Human  Species 11 

Usher's  Bible  Chronology,  no  proof  in  favor  of  Winchell's 

Preadamites 14 

The   Assumed   Principle   of  "  Progress,"    no   Argument   in 

Favor  of  Preadamites 16 

Winchell  misquotes  and  misinterprets  the  Bible 19 

Was  the  First  Man  'in  American  ? 20 

Asia  probably  the  Cradle  of  Mankind 2.3 

The  American  Indians  testify  to  their  Foreign  Oi'igin 24 

I. — c  xxxv 


If' 


n 


CHAPTER    II. 

ANTIQUITY  OF  MAN    IN   AMERICA. 

PAGE 

Scientists  disagree  on  the  Antiquity  of  Man  in  America  ....  26 

No  Proofs  from  Petite  Anne  or  Nebraska  Loess 27 

The  Doubtful  Trenton  Inter/rhit-ial  Man 28 

Eelics  of  Glacial  Man  in  Varioun  Locralities 29 

The  Old  Claymont  and  the  Arizona  Man 31 

The  Calaveras  Skull,  eU' 32 

Antiquity  of  Man  in  South  Anterica 34 

Diverging   Opinions  regarding  the   Period   or    Periods   of 

Glaciation 35 

The  Glacial  Man  either  more  than  One  Billion  Two  Hun- 
dred and  Eighty  Million,  or  \em  than  Ten  Thousand  Years 

Old 37 

The  Niagara  Falls  as  a  Chronometer 38 

Scientists  puzzled  at  the  World's  Chronology 41 

Bible  Chronology  Inteqjretation 43 

The  Bible  no  Text-Book  of  Chronology 45 


CHAPTER    III. 

PRE-CHRIKTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 

Primeval  Inhabitants  of  America 48 

The  DolichocephalouM  Race  and  the  Brachycephalous 48 

The  Kitchen  Middings 50 

Antiquity  of  the  Kitchen  Middings 51 

Diet  and  Cannibalism  of  the  Kitchen  Middings 53 

Origin  of  the  Kitchen  Middings ....  53 

Kitchen  Middings  in  Europe 55 

Civilization  and  Religion  of  the  Kitchen  Middings 55 

The  Legendary  HohgatCM 56 

The  Cave  Dwellers 57 

The  Mound-builders  lietween  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Rocky 

Mountains 59 

Monuments  of  the  Mound-builders 61 

Fortifications  and  Signal-Mounds 62 

Temple-  and  Burial-Mounds 64 

Mortal  Remains  in  the  Mound-builders'  Tumuli 65 

Rich   Metals  and   R«Hcm  of   the   Mound-builders'    Art  and 

Industry 66 


PAGE 

.  26 
.  27 

..  28 
..  29 
. .  31 
..  32 
..  34 
of 
..  35 


an- 
ars 


37 

38 

41 

43 

45 


..  48 
..  48 
..  50 
..  51 
..  53 
...  53 
...  55 
...  55 
...  56 
...  57 

iofky 

...  59 

...  61 

....  62 

....  64 

....  65 

rt  and 
...  66 


CONTENTS.  XXXVll 

PAOE 

Material  Civilization  of  the  Mound-builders 69 

The  Mound-builders'  Pottery 70 

Agriculture,  Conamerce,  and  Science  of  the  Mound-builders. .   71 

The  Mound-builders  Numerous  and  Well-Governed 73 

Epoch  of  the  Mound-builders'  Disappearance 75 

Origin  of  the  Mound-builders 76 

The  Mound-builders  in  Northwestern  Europe 79 

Causes  of  the  Mound-builders'  Extinction 81 

Eeligion  of  the  Mound-builders 82 


CHAPTEE    IV. 

OTHER  ANCIENT   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 

Euins  of  Maya  Cities  in  Yucatan 85 

Great  Antiquity  of  the  Maya  Cities 86 

The  Maya  Monuments  are  of  Western  Pattern 87 

Maya  Civilization  diflterent  from  the  Aztec 89 

Grand  Monuments  on  Easter  Island 91 

Eeligion  of  the  Mayas  and  their  Ilero-god 92 

Did  the  Mayas  hear  St.  Thomas  or  Buddhist  Teachers? 93 

The  Mayas  in  Brazil 94 

Cliff  Dwellers  and  Pueblo  Indians 95 

Cliff  Dwellings 96 

Agriculture  and  Industry  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers 97 

Cliff  Dwellers'  Mummies,  Belief  in  a  Future  Life 99 

Modern  Eemnants  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers 100 

Pueblo  Indians  and  their  "  Casas  Grandes" 102 

Canals  for  Navigation,  Irrigation,  and  Water  Supply 104 

Eeligion  of  the  Pueblos,  their  Hero-god,  and  his  Virgin- 
Mother  1 . .  105 

Pueblo  Trjiditions  of  Man's  Creation  and  Fall,  the  Deluge, 

,.:  d  ti  e  lo'V'.r  of  Babel 107 

Pueuios  ..n''  Cnrf  Dwellers  probably  Semi-Civilized  Asiatics  108 

Our  Modern  Indians,  their  Eecords 109 

Antiquity  of  the  Linapi-AJgonquin  Nations Ill 

Linapi  Book  of  Genesis 112 

The  Linapis  immigrate  and  scatter  over  North  America. . .  112 

The  Linapis  on  the  Lakes  about  the  Time  of  Christ 114 

Linapi    Eecord   of   the    Northmen's    and    other    Whiles' 

Arrival 115 


N 


u 


\ 


!l 


XXXVlll 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEK    V. 

NOTIONS  OF   AMtiUCA    IN   ANCIENT   GREECE. 

PAGE 

Sanchoniathon  knew  America  and  the  Eoute  to  it 117 

Ilonier's  Elysium  and  Pindar's  Islands  of  the  Blest  across 

the  Western  Ocean 118 

Plutarch's  'Hnetpot,  or  Great  Continent   and  Cronian  Sea  120 
The  Great  Continent  spoken  of  by  Cicero,  Macrobius,  and 

Theopompus 121 

The  Americans  knew  the  Relative  Extent  of  botix  Hemi- 
spheres    122 

Regular  Voyages  of  North  Americans  to  Europe 123 

Authority  of  Plato's  Critias  and  Tima>us 125 

Plato's  Atlantis  accepted  as  Historical 127 

Plato's  Sources  of  Information 129 

Plato's  Geography  of  the  Western  Continent 134 

Produce  and  Riches  of  the  Island  Atlantis i35 

Description  of  Atlantis's  Capital  and  Temple 137 

Population  and  Government  of  the  American  Empire 139 

Religion  and  Morals  of  the  Atlantides HI 

The  Atlantides  defeated  by  the  Athenians 143 

Submersion  of  Atlantis 143 

Aristoteles  and  Theophrastus  on  the  Groat  Western  Island  145 
Theopompus  on   the   fieydkrj  "  Ilmcpoi,  its   Populous   Cities, 

and  Exploration  of  Europe 146 

CHAPTER    VI. 

ANCIENT   EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OP  AMERICA. 

To   Pythias,   Edrisi,    Eratosthenes,   Poseidonius,    Marinus 
Tyrius,  Lucius  A.  Seneca,  and  Ptolemy  our  Continent 

was  lost  in  the  Western  Ocean 147 

Diodorus  of  Sicily  and  Sertorius  on  the  Distant  Island  of 

the  Atlantic 149 

Strabo,  Horace,  and  Virgil  on  the  Great  Western  Islands  . .  150 

Seneca's  Land  beyond  Thule 150 

Pliny  and  Others  allude  to  the  Western  Land 151 

Fathers  of  the  Church  on  "  the  Worlds  beyond  the  Ocean"  152 

Sphericity  of  the  Earth  and  Antipodes  known  long  ago. . . .  153 

Macrobius  and  Others  allude  to  America 154 

Discovery  of  America  by  the  Irish  and  the  Northmen 154 


CONTENTS.  XXXIX 

PAGE 

Albertus  Macjnus  and  Others  on  "the  Other Hemisphoi'e" . .  155 

Dante  uncovers  America 156 

Mandeville's  Legend 156 

Eoger  Bacon  and  Cardinal  d'Ailly  on  our  Continent 157 

Mediaeval  Maps  of  Western  Lands 157 

Pulci  prophesies  Americas  Discovery 158 

Paolo  Toscanelli  and  Columbus 160 


.   121 

.  122 
.  123 
.  125 
.  127 
129 
.  134 
, .  135 
,  .  137 
. .  139 
.  .  141 
..  143 
..  143 
id  145 

146 


147 

149 

150 

150 

151 

152 

153 

154 

154 


CHAPTER  VI  I. 

DISCOVERIES   OF   EUROPE   BY   AMERICAN    NATIVES. 

Ancient  Americana  emigrating  to  Europe 162 

American  Invasions  of  the  Old  World 162 

American  Settlements  in  the  Old  World,  the  Basques 164 

Pre-Christian  Voyages  of  Americans  to  Europe 166 

Americans  land  in  Lubeck  in  a.d.  1153  and  1160 168 

Asmundus  Kastandratzius's  Ocean  Voyages  in  a  Kayak, . , .  169 

Esquimau  Voyages  to  the  Orkneys 170 

American  Natives  on  the  French  Coast  in  a.d.  1508 171 

Americans  on  the  Azore  Islands 172 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 

The  Golden  Age 174 

America's  Primeval  Civilization  in  Lower  California 175 

In  Central  America 177 

In  Peru 178 

In  Brazil 181 

Foundation  of  Civilization 182 

The  Theory  of  "  Progress"  as  a  Civilizer 182 

Was  Ancient  America's  Civilization  Autochthonous? 185 

Asiatic  Origin  of  Primeval  American  Civilization 187 

Memory  of  Bible  Records  and  of  Ancient  Immigrations.  . .  189 

Noe's  Close  Posterity  settle  America 190 

Reiterated  Voyages  of  the  Phoenicians  to  America 192 

Ophir  not  in  America 194 

Phojnician  Vestiges  in  America  (?) 195 

The  Hebrew  Theory  of  America's  Settlement  and  Civili- 
zation    196 


xl  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

"  Americans  no  Jcvvch" 198 

Pre-Christian  Irish  in  America  (?) 200 

Romans,  Negroes,  Tartars  civilize  Ancient  America  (!) 201 

Christianity  America's  Second  Civilizor 202 

CHAPTER    IX. 

THE   APOSTLE   ST.    THOMAS    IN   AMERICA. 

A  Mormon  Story  of  Christ  in  America 204 

A  Christian  Legend 205 

Advocates  of  St.  Thomas's  preaching  in  America 206 

Ancient  Fathers  advocate  St.  Thomas's  Mission  in  America   208 

The  Twelve  Apostles  sent  all  over  the  World 209 

The  Apostles  "  preached  in  all  the  Creation  that  is  under 

Heaven" 211 

Obvious  Meaning  of  Holy  Writ's  Expressions 212 

Solorzano's  Objections 214 

Objections  from  the  Silence  of  Profane  History  and  Pre- 
tended Impossibility  of  Communication 215 

Miraculous  Establishment  of  Christianity 216 

St.  Thomas  in  Bast  India  and  China 216 

Peruvian  Ti-aditions  regarding  St.  Thomas 217 

Brazilian  Traditions  regarding  St.  Thomas 219 

St.  Thomas  with  other  South  American  Nations 221 

St.  Thomas  also  in  North  America 223 

Gaffarel's  Hypercriticism  of  American  Tradition 224 

The  Devil,  if  not  the  Spaniards,  introduced   Christianity 

into  America  (!) 225 

St.  Thomas's  Memory  imported  from  Seythia  (?) 226 

St.  Thomas  and  Quetzalcoatl  not  Identical 227 

Divine  Revelation,  the  Source  of  Civilization 230 

Former  Christianity,  yet  not  all  Supernatural  Ideas,  lost 
in  America 231 


CHAPTER   X. 

A   SYNOPSIS  OF   THE   CIVIL   HISTORY  OP  OUR   NATIVES. 

Different  American  Nations  at  the  Time  of  the  Spanish 

Discovery 233 

Constant  Warfare  in  America 234 

Esquimaux  driven  to  the  North 235 


CONTENTS.  xli 

PAGE 

Southward   Migration   of   the   Western   Tribes   of  North 

America 236 

The  Aymaras  of  Peru  driven  South  by  the  Incas 237 

The  Mayas  overthrown  by  the  Nahuas  in  Central  America  238 

The  Toltec  Empire  in  Mexico 238 

Uncertainties  of  Nahua  History 240 

Arrival  of  the  Nahuatlac  Tribes 241 

The  Mexican  Triple  Alliance 243 

The  Tyranny  of  the  Aztecs  causes  their  Ruin 244 

End  of  the  Aztec  Dynasty 245 

Extension  of  the  Peruvian  Empire 247 

The  last  Incas 247 


CHAPTER    XI. 


215 
216 
216 
217 
219 
221 
223 
224 

225 
226 
227 
230 

231 


IMMORALITY   AND   MISERY   IN  ANCIENT  AMERICA. 

God  not  worshipped  in  Ancient  America 250 

Sun-Worship  in  Ancient  America 252 

Idolatry  Wide-spread 253 

Idolatry  in  Peru 254 

Idolatry  in  Mexico 255 

Sorcery  and  Superstition 256 

Devil  Apparitions  and  Devil  Worship 258 

Ebriety  in  Central  America 260 

Ebriety  in  Mexico 262 

Licentiousness  in  Ancient  America 263 

Licentiousness  in  Central  America 265 

Licentiousness  in  Mexico 266 

Immorality  and  Abortion  in  Peru 268 

Sacrifice  of  Children  in  Peru 269 

Other  Human  Sacrifices  in  Peru 269 

Butcheries  at  Burials  in  Peru 271 

Sacrifice  of  Children  in  Mexico 271 

Kinds  of  Human  Victims  in  Mexico 272 

Cruelty  attending  Human  Sacrifices 273 

More  Horrible  Modes  of  Human  Sacrifice 276 

Great  Number  of  Human  Victims  in  Mexico 277 

Trophies  of  Human  Skulls  in  New  Spain 279 

Mexicans  tired  of  the  Religious  Tribute  of  Human  Blood. .  281 

Human  Sacrifices  in  North  and  Central  America 282 

Religious  Cannibalism  in  Central  America  and  Peru 283 


B 


xlii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Cannibalism  in  Mexico 285 

Cannibalism  in  other  American  Parts 287 

Pitiful  Condition  of  the  People  in  Ancient  America 289 

Ancient  American  Tax  Payers 290 

Destitution  of  the  Mexican  People 291 

Thraldom  in  Peru 292 

Slavery  in  Mexico 295 

Intellectual  Degradation  of  the  Amei'ican  Indians 296 

CHAPTEE    XII. 

URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR   ABORIGINES. 

Our  Indians,  Descendants  of  Civilized  Aborigines  (?) 299 

Our  Indians,  more  likely  Later  Immigrants 300 

Are  the  American  Indians  One  Special  Eace  ? 301 

Physical  Modifications  in  America 302 

Variety  of  the  American  Natives 304 

White  Tribes  and  Black  Ti'ibes  in  America 306 

Divers  Eaces  of  American  Aborigines 308 

Great  Diversity  of  Languages  in  Ancient  America 309 

Turanian  Origin  of  most  American  Nations 311 

The  Turanian  Eace  driven  by  the  Semitic 312 

Features  and  Mode  of  Life  of  both  Tartars  and  Americans  313 

Characteristic  Customs  of  Scythians  and  Americans 314 

Cruelty  Common  to  Tartars  and  Americans 315 

Human  Sacrifices  in  Scythia  as  in  Western  America 316 

Cannibalism  in  Scythia  as  in  Western  America 316 

Northwestern  Eoute  followed  by  the  Tartar  Immigrants. . .  318 

Tartars  all  over  Northei*n  Asia  and  Europe 320 

Procopius  on  the  Tartars  in  Northernmost  America 321 

Early  Immigration  of  Finns  from  Europe 324 

Tartars  entering  by  Behring  Strait 324 

Ancient  and   Modern   Voyages  of  the   Aborigines  across 

Behring  Strait 326 


CHAPTEE    XIIL 

EABT-ASIATIC,  POLYNESIAN,  AND   OTHER    IMMIGRATIONS. 

The  Aleutian  Bridge  across  the  Pacific  Ocean 328 

East-Asiatics  in  Western  America 329 

Chinese  Vestiges  in  Mexico 330 


CONTENTS.  xliii 

PAOE 

Japanese,   rather  than    Chinese,   the   AnecHtors   of   HOmc 

American  Tribes 332 

Intentional  Sailing  across  the  Pacific  in  Olden  Times 334 

Malays,  Melanesians,  and  Polynesians  in  America 335 

The  Chimus  from  Polynesia  compete  with  the  Incas 337 

Mongoloids,  crossing  Polynesia,  settle  all  of  South  America  (!)  338 

Buddhist  Immigration  into  Fu-sang 338 

African  Immigrations 341 

Some  Civilized  Nation  must  have  passed  into  America  in 

Christian  Times 343 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 

SEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF   WESTERN    AMERICA, 

The  Bright  Side  of  American  Indians,  especially  in  Tlas- 

cala 344 

Eepublican,  Aristocratic,  Monarchic  Eegular  Governments  345 

Graded  Courts  of  Law 346 

Commerce  and  Market-Plaees 347 

Media  of  Exchange 348 

Industry  in  Mexico 349 

House  Furniture  in  Central  America 351 

Architecture  and  Sculpture 351 

Fortifications  and  Water- Works 353 

Public  Roads  in  Peru 355 

Sciences  in  Mexico 358 

Sciences  and  Literature  in  Tezcuco 359 

Education  and  Sciences  in  Peru 360 


CHAPTER    XV. 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS   PRESERVED    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 

Religious  Dualism  in  Mexico 363 

Idea  of  a  Supreme  Being  in  America 363 

Belief  in  the  One  True  God  in  Mexico 364 

Mexican  Description  of  God 367 

The  True  God  in  Peru 368 

Traces  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  in  Various  American  Parts  . .  370 

The  Blessed  Trinity  in  Central  America 372 

The  God-Creator 375 


xliv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The  Creation  according  to  the  Quiche  "  Popol  Vuh" 376 

Creations  of  Man 378 

The  First  Woman 379 

Creation  of  Lower  Gods 380 

"  Zemis,"  Angels,  Guardian  Angels,  Battle  in  Heaven 382 

The  Devils 384 

Eve  tempted  by  the  Devil 385 

Man's  Soul  Immortal 385 

Festivals  in  Honor  of  the  Dead 388 

Intercession  for  the  Dead 389 

Reward  or  Punishment  of  the  Dead  in  Gaspesia,  Virginia, 

California 389 

Hell  and  Heaven  in  Mexico  and  Central  America 390 

Hell  and  Heaven  in  Hayti  and  South  America 392 

ResuiTection  of  the  Body  in  Peru 393 

The  Resurrection  in  Yucatan,  Mexico,  etc 395 

A  Trace  of  the  Last  Judgment  Dogma 396 


CHAPTER    XVL 


THE   BIBLE   KNOWN    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


Saci'iflces  of  Plants  and  Animals  in  Peru  and  Mexico 397 

The  Giants 399 

The  Giants  perish  in  a  Flood 401 

Universality  of  the  Deluge 402 

Geology  and  the  Deluge 403 

American  Brute  Population  after  the  Deluge 404 

American  Traditions  regarding  a  Universal  Deluge 407 

Deluge  with  the  Gaspesians  and  the  Thlinkeets 408 

Deluge  with  the  Californian  Tribes 409 

Deluge  with  the  Mexicans 411 

Deluge  in  Central  America 412 

Deluge  in  Brazil  and  Peru 413 

The  Rainbow  and  no  Second  Deluge 414 

Tower  of  Babel  with  the  Nahuas 415 

Tower  of  Babel  with  the  Cholulans 416 

Tower  of  Babel  in  Central  America  and  California 418 

Jewish  Rites  in  Ancient  America 419 

Circumcision,   Passage   through   the   Red    Sea,   Cities    of 
Refuge,  Sacred  Unctions 420 


CONTENTS. 


xlv 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

CHRIST   AND   III8   CROSS   KNOWN    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 

PAGE 

Christianity  in  America  before  the  Spanish  Discovery 423 

A  Christian  Manuscript  of  the  Otomis 424 

The  Saviour  expected 425 

The  Incarnation  in  Brazil  and  Central  America 426 

The  Incarnation  in  Mexico 427 

The  Mother  of  God  in  Mexico 428 

Object  of  the  Incarnation 430 

Suiferings  and  Death  of  the  Saviour 430 

EesuiTection  and  Ascension  of  the  Saviour 431 

Crosses  found  in  the  Bahamas  and  Cozumel 435 

Crosses  found  in  Yucatan 436 

Crosses  found  in  New  Spain 438 

Crosses  found  in  Peru 438 

Crosses  found  among  Savage  Tribes 440 

The  Cross  among  the  Gaspesians 441 

Further  Particulars  of  the  Cross  among  the  Gaspesians. . . ,  447 
The  Fact  of  those  Crosses  argues  an  early  Evangelization 

of  America 448 

Antiquity  and  Vulgar  Uses  of  the  Cross 450 

American  Crosses,  Individual  Objects  of  Worship 452 

Crucifixes  in  Zapoteca,  Jalisco,  Oaxaca 453 

The  Crucifix  of  Cozumel  and  Merida 454 

Prehistoric  Christianity  in  America 455 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

BAPTISM   AND   HOLY   EUCHARIST   IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 

Christian   Doctrine    and   Christian   Thoughts   in   Ancient 

America 457 

Prayer  for  a  new  Ruler 458 

Advice  of  an  Aztec  Mother  to  her  Grown  Daughter 461 

Baptism  in  the  Canary  and  the  Cai'ibbean  Islands,  and  in 

Central  America 465 

Baptism,  the  Sacrament  of  Regeneration 467 

Baptism,  when  administered 467 

Preparations  for  Baptism 468 

Ceremonies  of  Baptism 469 

Baptism  Proper 471 


xlvi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Further  Coromonios  of  Baptism 472 

Continuation 473 

Holy  EuchariHt,  Coninmnion  in  Pom 473 

Eucharistic  Panch  in  Mexico 474 

Consecration  of  the  Eueharistic  Elements  in  Mexico 475 

Communion  in  Mexico 476 

Nntui'al  Fast  required  for  Communion 477 

Frequent  Communion  in  Mexico,  but  no  Preparatory  Con- 
fession    478 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

PENANCE   AND   CONFESSION    IN    MEXICO   AND   PERU. 

Fasts  and  Cruel  Penances  of  the  American  Aborigines  ....  480 

Auricular  Confession  in  Peru 482 

Auricular  Confession  in  Central  America  and  Mexico 483 

Confession  remitting  Sin  and  Civil  Penalties 484 

Confessoi's  bound  to  Secrecy 485 

Dispositions  required  in  the  Penitent 486 

Integrity  of  Confession 487 

Contrition  and  Absolution 487 

Advice  given  and  Penance  imposed 488 

Introduction  of  Confession  into  America 490 


CHAPTER    XX. 

PRIESTHOOD,  RELIGIOUS  ORDERS,  MARRIAGES,  EDUCATION,  AND  CHRIS- 
TIAN RITES   IN   ANCIENT   MEXICO,  CENTRAL   AMERICA,  AND   PERU. 

Preparation  for  the  Priesthood 491 

Ordination,  Title,  and  Costume  of  the  Priests 491 

Duties  and  Hierarchy  of  the  Clergy 492 

Maintenance  of  the  Clergy 493 

Celibacy  of  the  Ancient  Amei'ican  Priesthood 494 

Male  Religious  Orders  in  Mexico 495 

Religious    Institution   for    Young    Men   in   the    Mexican 

Capital 497 

Convents  of  Nuns  in  Mexico 498 

Convents  of  Nuns  in  Central  America 500 

Peruvian  Nuns  and  their  Pupils 500 


CONTENTS.  xlvii 

PAGE 

Peruvian  Ileiinits 502 

Origin  of  IleligiouH  InHtitutions  ir.  Amcricn 503 

Marriage  in  Ancient  America 504 

Burials  in  VariouH  American  PartH 507 

Eeligious  Education  in  Mexico 509 

A  University  in  Ancient  Guatemala 510 

Places  of  Refuge,  ConBecration  of  Kings,  Holy  Water,  Ex- 
orcisms    510 

Blessing  of  New  Houses,  Vigils  of  Feasts,  Purification  of 

Mothers 511 

Processions     and    Pilgrimages     in    Mexico    and    Central 

America 512 

Pilgrimages  in  Peru 513 

New-Fire  in  Mexico  and  Peru 514 

Liturgical  Prayers  in  Public  Calamities,  Amen 516 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

WAS   AMERICA   CHRISTIANIZED   FROM   ASIA? 

Similarities  between  Christianity  and   Ancient  American 

Religions  admitted 517 

Credibility  of  the  First  American  Historians 518 

Statements    of    the    Spanish    Missionaries    accepted     by 

Modern  Historians 521 

The  Devil  a  Teacher  of  Christian  Doctrine  (!) 522 

Christian  Immigrations  into  America 524 

American  Semi-Civilization  from  Asia 524 

Post-Christian  Immigration  of  the  Tartars 526 

Chinese  Immigration  in  a.d.  1270  (?) 528 

Peruvian  Civilization  from  Asia  or  Polynesia 529 

Modern  Arrivals  of  Asiatics  in  America 530 

Further  Evidences  of  Asiatic  Civilization  in  America 531 

Christianity  introduced  from  China  (?) 532 

Christianity  in  Scythia  and  Tartar  Mongolia 533 

Early  Christianity  in  China 534 

Franciscan  Missionaries  in  China  during  the  Fourteenth 

Century 536 

Christianization  of  America  from  Asia,  not  likely 538 

American  Traditions,  a  Clue  to  the  Origin  of  Christianity 

in  America 539 


r 


I 


xlviii  CONTENTS. 

C  II  APT  Kit    XXII. 

QUETZALCOATL  AND    IllH   WHITE   COLONY. 

I>A0B 

Tho    Wcst-Amorit'Hii     Religious    Toachor    under    VuriouH 

Names 540 

Origin,  Title,  and  FoaturcH  of  Quotzalcoatl 541 

Haintly  Life  of  the  Apowtle 542 

Friar's  Costume  and  Mitre  of  Quetzalcoatl 643 

Time  of  Quetzalcoatl's  Arrival 544 

(iuetzalcoatl's  Conjpanions 546 

VV^ondei*8  worked  by  the  Foreign  Civilizors 548 

Doctrine  preached  by  (iuetzalcoatl  and  his  Companions  .  . .   548 
Christian  Kites  and  Practices  introduced  by  Quetzalcoatl. .   550 

Peace  and  Material  Progress  through  Quetzalcoatl 550 

Prosperity  through  Quetzalcoatl 552 

Quetzalcoatl's  White  Colony 554 

Origin  of  the  White  Toltecas 555 

Modern  Remnants  of  the  White  Colony 556 

Wanderings  of  (Quetzalcoatl 558 

Quetzalcoatl  deceived  through  a  Fantastic   drink   by  his 

Enemy 560 

Cukulcan  in  Zapoteca  and  Yucatan 562 

Departure  of  Cukulcan  from   Yucatan,  of  Topiltzin  from 

Tulla 563 

Quetzalcoatl  apotheosized 564 

Gradual  Perversion  of  Quetzalcoatl's  Colony 564 

Warfare  of  Bloody  Idolatry  against  the  Gentler  Religion . .  565 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

quetzalcoatl's   return   to   AMERICA. 

Quetzalcoatl    foretells   the   Arrival    across  the    Sea   of   a 

White  Eastern  Nation 567 

Quetzalcoatl  represented  asleep,  to  awake  again 568 

Quetzalcoatl's  Prophecy  renewed 569 

Forebodings  of  the  Accomplishment 571 

Religious   Fear  of    the   Mexicans  at   the   Spaniards'  Ap- 
proach    573 

Expectation  of  Quetzalcoatl  in  Mexico  and  Yucatan 575 


CONTENTS.  Xlix 

PAOR 

Expoctiition  of  Forcit^n   GoUh  uiid   Nutions   in   Pom   and 

llayti 57(5 

The  SpaniardH  received  us  Gods  und  ('ortes  an  (iuetzaicoatl 

hy  our  Ahorii^ineH 577 

The  Mexican  VasHaJH  hail  CortoH  aw  the  lleturnin^  God. , . .   57!> 

Montezuma  Hubniitu  to  ('harles  V.  an  to  (^uetzalcoatl 580 

Some    Euro])ean8    introduood    Christianity    into    Ancient 
America 582 


APPENDIX   OF  DOCUMENTS. 

DOCUMENT 

1.,  a.  Linapi   National   Songs — First   Song:    The   Cre- 
ation, etc 585 

I.,  h.  Second  Song :  The  Flood,  etc f»86 

I.,  c.  Third  Song:    Fate   after  the  Flood,  Emigration 

to  America 587 

II.,  a,  b,  c,  d,  e,f,  g.  Second   Series  of  North  American 

Indians'  Songs ;  Their  History  in  America  ....  589 

III.,  a.  Plato's  Credibility  in  regard  to  Atlantis 591 

III.,  b.  Source  of  Plato's  Information 593 

III.,  c.  War  between  the  Atlantis  and  Athens 593 

IV.,  a.  Extent  of  the  Atlantic  Empire 593 

IV.,  b.  Products  of  the  Atlantis 594 

IV.,  c.  Neptune's  Temple  in  Atlantis's  Capital 594 

IV.,  d.  Haven  and  Neighborhood  of  Atlantis's  Caj^ital . . .  595 
v.,  a.  Government,  Laws,  and  Sacrifices  of  the  Atlan- 

tides 596 

v.,  b.  Degeneracy  of  the  Atlantides 597 

v.,  c.  Atlantis's  Defeat  and  Submersion 597 

VI.,  a.  Horace  and  Virgil  point  to  our  Continent 598 

VI.,  b.  Seneca's  Land  beyond  the  Ocean 598 

VII.,  a.  Dante  discovering  America 599 

VII.,  b.  Pulei  prophesies  the  Discovery  of  America 599 

VIII.,  a,  b.  American  Natives  in  Europe  before  Christ 600 

IX.,  a,  b.  American   Natives   sail   to  Europe  about  the 

year  1508 600 

X.        Golden  Age  of  tb-^  .American  Aborigines 601 

XI.,  a.  Agglutinative  Greenland  Language 603 

XI.,  b.  Hungarian  Language,  Turanian 604 

XL,  c.  American  Languages,  Ural-Altaic 604 

XL,  d.  Agglutinative  Algic  Languages 605 


/ 


DOCUMENT 

XI.,  e. 

XII. 

XIII. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

XVII. 


COXTEXT8. 

PAGE 

A  Specimen  of  the  Nez-PerceH  Language 606 

One  God  Creator  of  All  in  Mexico 606 

Indian  Myths  about  the  Origin  of  Man 607 

Ancient  Worship  of  the  C'rosH  in  New  Brunswick  610 

A  Crucifix  in  Zapoteca 611 

Quetzalcoatl's  Prophecy  renewed  in  a.d.  1384. ...  611 
The  Heruli  with  Savage  Scritifinns   in  Iceland 

and  Greenland 612 


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HISTORY 


or 


AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS 


CHAPTER  I. 


ORIGIN   OF   THE  AMERICAN   MAN. 

A  QUESTION  more  easily  proposed  than  answered 
obtrudes  itself  upon  the  inquirer  into  American  pre- 
historic times  :  Who  was  the  first  man  of  the  Western 
Continent,  and  how  did  he  originate  ? 

When  we  ask  for  information  from  the  fashionable 
school  of  science  sprung  up  during  the  latter  half  of 
our  century,  the  disciples  of  Darwin  afford  us  answers 
as  amazing  to  our  intelligence  as  humiliating  to  our 
pride.  In  fact,  the  idea  of  the  first  man,  whether  in 
the  Old,  or  in  the  New  World,  should  simply  be  put 
aside  as  impertinent,  and  we  should  rather  learn  the 
history  of  the  primal,  self-created  Moneron,  which  is  a 
thing  much  like  to  a  sotitarfifermSiting  atom  !  This 
moneron  expanded  during  the  process  of  fermentation, 
probably  feeding  on  another  self-produced,  but  weaker 
molecule ;  and  it  developed,  by  way  of  evolution,  into 
•ne  species  of  living  being,  how  humble  soever  it  may 
lia,  V  been ;  and  thus  became  the  first  leader  of  the 
progress  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and,  indeed,  of  all 
ages.  Nor  did  it  stop  at  this  first  improvement,  but 
turned  itself  into  sea-weed,  dry-land  vegetation,  and, 


pp 


2 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


» 


later  on,  into  sensitive  beings  and  animals,  which,  from 
a  creeping  worm,  eventually  became  large  and  won- 
derful beasts.  Great  progress  l^ad  been  made  so  far, 
but  the  moneron  was  but  a  brute  as  yet.  More  was 
desired :  reason  and  free  will,  guided  by  connatural 
perception  of  moral  good  and  evil,  of  a  superior,  infi- 
nite Being,  and  of  the  continuation  of  existence  after 
this  life. 

In  the  present  condition  of  science  we  cannot  exactly 
state  the  time  at  which  the  improved  moneron  made  its 
first  effort  to  acquire  the  specific  differentiation  of  the 
human  kind,  but  we  know  that,  some  day,  it  assumed 
the  shape  and  brains  of  the  clever  and  deceitful  simia, 
which  soon  grew  up  into  a  baboon,  that  still  curtailed 
its  spinal  elongation  and  regulated  the  grammatical 
rules  of  its  speech,  and  honestly  earned  the  title  of  a 
man,  thus  becoming  the  worthy  progenitor  of  our 
species. 

Mr.  Dunbar  Heath,  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  afterwards  a  scientist,  says,^  "  I  confine 
myself  to  the  accepting  and  explaining  known  and 
knowable  phenomena.  It  is  known  that  anthropoids 
existed  throughout  Europe.  It  is  knowable  that  they 
became  mute  men.  It  is  knowable  that  these  mutes 
gasped  after  articulation  and,  in  a  few  spots,  attained 
to  it.  Those  who  did  so  at  one  particular  spot  I  call 
Aryans,  whether  that  one  spot  was  in  Asia  or  in  the 
submerged  continent  of  Atlantis."  ^ 

Why  not  in  the  rest  of  America  ? 

Those  statements  are  founded  not  only  on  deep  philo- 
sophical thought  and  careful  scientific  researches,  but 
they  are  also,  in  a  measure,  borne  out  by  the  traditions 
of  some  of  the  oldest  American  tribes,  "  who  are  quite 


>  Anthropological    Review,    No. 
xiii.  p.  36. 


Ap.  Southall,  p.  53. 


m 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN   MAN.  3 

content,  in  many  instances,  to  believe  that  their  earliest 
ancestor  was  a  dog  or  a  coyote,"  and  seem,  therefore, 
entitled  to  some  sympathy  from  the  latest  school  of 
modern  science ;  although  it  is  true  that  their  process 
of  development  was  rather  abrupt,  and  that  they  did 
not  require  very  many  links  in  the  chain  of  evolu- 
tion."^ 

It  does  not  seem  that  H.  H.  Bancroft  had  a  right  to 
call  this  tradition  "  the  grossest  conception  of  the  mys- 
tery of  the  beginning  of  man,"  when  we  hear  a  similar 
sentence  pronounced  by  the  modern  ethnologist,  Daniel 
G.  Brinton :  "  If  science  refuse  to  accept  the  doctrine 
of  specific  creation,  it  must  refuse  also,  for  lack  of  com- 
plete evidence,  to  accept  the  doctrine  of  gradual  evo- 
lution, the  old  Darwinian  doctrine.  The  theory  of 
'evolution  by  a  leap'  is  just  as  good  as  any  other 
theory.  According  to  this,  man  sprung  from  some 
high  order  of  mammal,  the  great  tree-ape,  perhaps,  by 
a  freak ;  just  as  men  of  genius  are  freaks,  and  as  all  the 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  show  freaks," — just  as 
the  North  American  Indian  was  a  freak  of  the  coyote ! 
Risum  teneatis,  amici.*^ 

In  fact,  the  Indians'  chain  of  evolution  was  shorter 
than  even  that  of  our  modern  scientists,  who  learnedly 
admit  the  system  of  rapid  transmutation,  according  to 
which  the  first  bird  broke  forth  from  the  egg  of  a  rep- 
tile, and  other  animals,  man  not  excepted,  suddenly 
appeared  as  the  offspring  of  an  entirely  different  species. 
The  learned  Naudin  also  rejects  the  idea  of  gradual 
transmutations,  which  require  millions  of  years  to  effect 
the  change  of  a  single  plant.  He  insists,  on  the  con- 
trary, upon  the  suddenness  with  which  most  of  the 
variations  observed  in  plants  have  been  produced,  and 

>  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  18,  n.         »  See  "East  Oregonian"  of  Pen- 
41 ;  see  Document  XIII.  dleton,  December  19,  1893. 


4  HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

regards  it  as  a  representation  of  what  must  have  hap- 
pened in  the  successive  genesis  of  living  beings.  Dar- 
win himself,  in  the  last  edition  of  his  works,  recognizes 
the  reality  of  these  sudden  leaps,  which  have  taken 
place  without  transitions  between  one  generation  and 
another,  and  confesses  that  he  has  not  taken  sufficient 
account  of  them  in  his  earlier  writings  !"  ^ 

This  agreement  of  the  modern  scientists  with  the 
American  savages,  on  such  a  deep  and  important  ques- 
tion, is  quite  remarkable,  indeed.  The  testimony  of 
our  Indians  is  not,  however,  absolutely  conclusive,  be- 
cause "  Darwinism  is  reversed  by  many  of  the  Wash- 
ington tribes,  who  hold  that  animals  and  even  some 
vegetables  are  descended  from  man  ;"  ^  "  while,  as  we 
advance  farther  south,  the  attempt  to  solve  the  problem 
of  the  first  American's  origin  grows  less  simple,  and 
the  direct  instrumentality  of  the  gods  is  required  for 
the  formation  of  man."  ^ 

Our  modern  scientists  are  not  any  more  particular 
than  the  Red  Skins  in  regard  to  the  original  nobility 
of  their  race,  but,  although  none  of  them  become  so  un- 
scientific as  to  admit  any  divine  interference  with  their 
primeval  origin,  they,  no  better  than  our  simple  Indians, 
i.  Tee  on  the  scientific  appearance  of  man  in  this  world. 
A^  a  proof,  let  me  quote  a  passage  of  the  very  learned 
scientist,  Elis^e  Reclus :  *  "As  Professor  Huxley  re- 
marks, the  difference  in  capacity  between  the  skull  of 
civilized  man  and  that  of  the" — fossil,  perhaps  civil- 
ized— "  man  of  Neanderthal  or  Borreby  much  exceeds 
the  difference  which  exists  between  ancient  human 
skulls  and  those  of  the  largest-sized  monkeys.     Must 


•  De  Quatrefages,  The  Human 
Species,  pp.  90,  122. 

»  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  18, 
n.  41. 


» Ibid. 
*  P.  437. 


ORIGIN    OF   THE    AMERICAN    MAN. 


we,  therefore,  conclude,  with  Carl  Vogt  and  many  other 
anthropologists,  that  man  is  descended  from  one  or 
several  species  of  these  quadru mania,  which  have  grad- 
ually developed  by  the  process  of  selection  or  through 
a  contest  for  life  extending  throughout  a  long  lapse  of 
ages  ?  We  have  here  a  theory  which,  far  from  being 
humiliating  to  mankind," — as  also  thinks  Dr.  Zahm, — 
"  should,  on  the  contrary,  prove  a  source  of  pride.  Our 
own  immense  progress  should  justify  a  very  consider- 
able expectation  on  this  point.  Nevertheless,  although 
it  is  all  very  well  to  set  up  and  discuss  these  grave 
hypotheses,  we  must  be  on  our  guard  against  accepting 
them  as  demonstrated  facts,  as  long  as  no  direct  evi- 
dence has  been  definitely  brought  forward."  • 

In  the  midst  of  the  conflicting  traditions  of  our  abo- 
rigines and  the  timid  conclusions  of  our  scientists,  it  is 
a  matter  of  common  prudence  to  admit,  with  the  greater 
number  of  men  of  scientific  fashion,  that  the  first  man 
was  the  son  of  an  ape.  But  in  this  theory  it  is  evident 
that  our  former  question  needs  to  be  amended,  and  we 
should  rather  ask.  Which  was  the  first  baboon  in 
America  sufficiently  perfected  to  be  called  a  man  ?  a 
question  which  we  leave  to  the  domain  of  mental  phi- 
losophy ;  the  more  readily  as  the  votaries  of  modern 
science  do  not  themselves  give  it  a  strictly  historical 
solution.  Neither  do  they  give  it  a  scientific  solution. 
One  of  the  main  objections  to  Darwin's  derivative  evo- 
lution and  gradual  transmutation  of  species  is  the  scien- 
tifically established  fact,  in  both  the  vegetable  and  the 
animal  kingdoms,  of  the  sterility  in  most  cases,  or  of 
the  reversion  or  disordered  variation  of  hybrids,  and  of 
the  fertility  of  mongrels.  Instead  of  answering,  Dar- 
win takes  his  stand  upon  our  ignorance  on  the  sub- 
ject of  crossings  between  wild  varieties  or  races.  But 
ignorance  ought  to  be  no  city  of  refuge  for  scientists. 


r 


6 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


And  yet  "  possibility,  chance,  and  personal  conviction" 
are  invariably  adduced  by  the  fashionable  school  as 
convincing  arguments. 

The  question  of  the  moneron's  development  into  a 
modern  scientist  has  often  been  argued  on  the  ground 
of  palaeontology,  and  Darwin  and  his  disciples  have 
been  asked  to  point  out  a  single  instance  of  those  series 
which  ought,  according  to  them,  to  unite  the  parent 
species  with  its  derivatives.  They  admit  their  ina- 
bility, but  reply  that  the  extinct  flora  and  fauna  have 
left  very  few  remains,  that  we  know  only  a  small 
portion  of  these  ancient  archives,  that  the  facts  which 
favor  their  doctrine  are  doubtless  buried  under  the 
waves  which  submerged  continents,  etc.  "  This  man- 
ner of  treating  the  question,"  Darwin  concludes,  "  di- 
minishes the  difl&culties  considerably,  if  it  does  not 
cause  them  to  disappear  altogether."  *  The  method  is 
easy,  but  is  it  scientific  ?  No  syllogism  without  a  minor, 
no  science  with  missing  links. 

These  missing  links  not  only  are  the  main  supports 
of  the  fashionable  theory,  but  also  afford  its  votaries  a 
welcome  latitude  in  their  broad  hypotheses  regarding 
the  advent  of  the  first  ape-man.  They  allow  them  to 
confidently  declare  that  "  the  numerous  and  interesting 
discoveries  presented  to  us  by  the  extensive  investiga- 
tions of  contemporary  anthropology  into  the  primeval 
history  of  the  human  race  place  the  important  fact, 
long  since  probable  for  many  other  reasons,  beyond  a 
doubt :  that  the  human  race,  as  such,  has  existed  for 
more  than  twenty  thousand  years,  and  that  it  is  also 
probable  that  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  years, 
perhaps  many  hundred  thousands  of  years,  have  elapsed 
since  its  first  appearance,"  perhaps  in  simian  form.* 


*  De  Quatrefages,  pp.  100,  101.         quoted  by  Amer.  Catb.  Quar.  Rev., 
» Ernst  Haeckel,  vol.  ii.  p.  298,     vol,  xviii.  p.  564. 


ORIGIN    OF   THE    AMERICAN    MAN.  7 

"The  countless  transformations  which  resulted  in 
giving  to  one  or  several  animals,  whose  environment 
wafe  specially  favorable,  the  distinguishing  character- 
istics of  the  human  species  were  so  insensible  that  it 
is  impossible,  not  only  to  fix  the  date  of  the  apparition 
of  man,  but  also  to  predicate  of  any  given  individual 
that  it  was  the  first  representative  of  humanity  in  its 
stage  of  development.  Haeckel  tells  us  unambiguously 
that  the  evolution  of  our  race  from  the  lower  forms  of 
animal  life  took  place  so  slowly  that  we  can  in  no  wise 
speak  of  the  first  many"  and  Skretchly  finds  traces  of 
the  humanized  simia  in  the  pliocene  epoch  of  Califor- 
nia.^ Mr.  Wallace  states  that  man  must  have  existed 
as  man  in  pliocene  times,  and  the  intermediate  forms 
connecting  him  with  the  higher  apes  probably  lived 
during  the  early  pliocene  or  the  miocene  period.^  In 
the  first  edition  of  his  "  Origin  of  Species,"  Darwin 
claimed  three  hundred  and  six  million  six  hundred  and 
fifty-two  thousand  four  hundred  years  for  the  denuda- 
tion of  the  world ;  which,  he  informed  us,  was  a  mere 
trifle  in  comparison  with  that  which  was  requisite  for 
the  establishing  of  his  theory.  These  are  large  figures, 
it  is  true ;  but  they  are  still  small  beside  the  many 
milliards  of  thousand  years  which,  Haeckel  assures  us, 
have  elapsed  since  man's  original  ancestor,  the  primal, 
self-created  moneron,  appeared  on  this  globe  of  ours.^ 
It  is  true  that  other  scientists  of  no  mean  renown,  math- 
ematicians and  physicists,  have  calculated  that,  at  the 
time  Darwin's  species  were  progressing,  the  earth  was 


*  On  the  occurrence  of  stone 
mortars  in  the  ancient  (pliocene) 
times  in  the  river  gravels  of 
Butte  County,  California,  Anthrop. 
Instit.  of  Great  Britain,  May,  1885  ; 
quoted  by  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii. 
sec.  p.  122. 


'"Antiquity  of  Man  in  North 
America."  Nineteenth  Century, 
October,  1887 ;  quoted  by  Congr^ 
Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  122;  Amer. 
Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  564. 

*  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p  730. 


-MMM 


8 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


in  a  fluid  condition  and  at  a  white  heat ;  ^  yet  we  love 
to  approve  this  enterprising  encroachment  on  eternity 
by  our  modern  anthropologists,  because,  if  they  degrade 
man  by  assigning  him  a  brutal  pedigree,  they  singularly 
enhance  his  greatness  by  liberally  allowing  unrestrained 
antiquity  to  his  ancestral  stock. 

Moreover,  should  any  student  be  deterred  from  ac- 
cepting the  learned  theory  by  the  numerous  myriads  of 
years  required  for  its  justification,  I  may  be  allowed  to 
remark  that  a  somewhat  shorter  period  might  suffice, 
under  favorable  circumstances,  to  account  for  the  grad- 
ual specific  improvements,  which,  no  doubt,  went  on 
faster  in  the  youth  of  the  simian  family  than  we  see 
them  proceed  in  its  present  decrepit  age.  The  favorable 
circumstances  to  which  I  allude  do  not  seem  to  have 
ever  obtained  in  these  United  States,  nor  in  any  por- 
tion of  America ;  but  the  learned  tell  us  that  the  east- 
ern parts  of  Africa  offer  most  exceptional  advantages  to 
a  rapid  development  of  anthropoids,  and  modern  dis- 
coveries confirm  their  assertions.  Nay,  we  are  informed 
that,  should  an  earnest  searcher  take  the  trouble,  he 
would  find  on  the  bottom  of  the  Indian  Ocean  any 
number  of  skeletons,  wherewith  to  establish  the  un- 
doubted certainty  of  the  ape's  gradual  improvement 
and  transformation  into  a  reasoning  being. 

Once  a  man,  the  ape,  it  appears  to  us,  should  not  have 
found  any  great  difficulty  in  emigrating  to  develop  still 
further  in  America ;  particularly  so  in  the  supposition 
that  the  Indian  Ocean  is  a  sunken  part  of  Africa  and 
of  Asia,  which  was,  in  pliocene  times,  probably  con- 
nected with  the  New  World  through  the  Sound  Islands, 
Australia  and  Polynesia. 

From  all  this  we  may  further  conclude  that  the  first 


*  Tait,  Recent  Advances  on  Phys- 
ical   Science,    quoted    by    Amer. 


Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  731 ; 
others,  ibid. 


ORIGIN   OF   THE    AMERICAN    MAN. 


i 


simian  man  in  America  was  no  autochthon,  but  an 
immigrant  from  the  Dark  Continent. 

It  might  be  highly  interesting  to  hear  modern  an- 
thropologists discuss  the  question  whether  the  dark- 
colored  tribes  that  the  Spaniards  met  with  in  the  West 
Indies  were  perhaps  his  direct  descendants ;  but  as  it 
is  our  special  intention  to  discover  the  first  vestiges  of 
Christianity  in  this  continent,  and  as  we  cannot  expect 
to  find  any  religion  among  a  brute  race  grown  up  from 
a  self-created  moneron,  we  must  needs  turn  our  atten- 
tion to  the  ancestors  of  the  real,  true  man,  of  the 
American  who  justly  claims  a  nobler  origin,  distin- 
guishes between  moral  good  and  evil,  and  feels  it  his 
duty  to  worship  his  Almighty  Creator  and  Judge. 

It  is  needless  to  state  that  the  enigma  of  man's  ap- 
pearance on  earth  can  be  solved  only  by  the  admission 
of  the  teaching  of  Christianity, — namely,  that  God 
Almighty  gave  him  existence  through  the  creative  act 
of  his  gratuitous  love.  "  It  may  be  proper,"  says 
Winchell,^  "to  enunciate  here  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciple that,  however  remote,  and  through  whatever 
number  of  links  in  the  chain  of  causation  the  remotest 
discovered  physical  antecedent  of  an  event  may  be,  no 
physical  antecedent  can  be  viewed  as  essentially  causal ; 
and  we  are  constrained  by  a  philosophic  necessity  to 
posit  self-existent  and  self-sufficient  causation  at  every 
beginning." 

But  we  should  not  neglect  the  question.  Where  man 
was  created,  whether  the  first  American  was  to  the 
manor  born,  or  had  left,  as  it  happens  to-day,  a  trans- 
marine country  to  build  a  better  home  in  our  Western 
Continent?  A  much-noted  modern  scientist,  Elisee 
Reclus,  says,  very  wisely,^  "  Although  this  question  is 


*  Preadamites,  p.  3. 


••'  P.  437. 


10 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


yet  insoluble,  none  is  more  discussed  by  anthropolo- 
gists. Some  maintain  that  the  primitive  unity  of  the 
race  is  an  indisputable  fact,  and  that  it  could  not  be 
denied  without  making  a  kind  of  attack  against  the 
majesty  of  mankind ;  others  are  of  the  opinion  that 
there  were  three,  four,  five,  ten,  or  eleven  primitive 
groups ;  there  are  some,  also,  who  talk  of  hundreds  of 
various  races  which  have  sprung  up  here  and  there,  at 
diiferent  epochs,  on  continents  and  islands,  like  the 
plants,  the  seeds  of  which  were  sown,  so  to  speak,  at 
random."  That  may  suffice  for  modern  science  ;  and, 
for  the  present,  we  shall  object  only  to  the  assumption 
in  regard  to  the  seeds  and  plants. 

With  the  single  mistake  of  taking  one  end  for  the 
other,  modern  scientific  anthropology  is  quite  correct 
when  it  states,^  "  Peoples  and  races  are  every  day  more 
and  more  mixed  up,  the  frontiers  of  countries  are  dis- 
appearing, and,  by  cross-breeding  upon  cross-breeding, 
all  men  will  ultimately  become  one  and  the  same  fam- 
ily." This  would  be  a  consoling  prophecy,  were  it  not 
for  the  actual  fact  that  crossing  is  the  principal  means 
of  multiplying  the  human  races.** 

"  In  America  comparative  philologists  have  been 
encouraged  to  prove  the  impossibility  of  a  common 
origin  of  languages  and  races,  in  order  to  justify,  by 
scientific  arguments,  the  unhallowed  theory  of  slavery," 
says  Miiller  ;  ^  yet  few  are  the  advocates  of  the  thesis 
which  pretends  that  the  first  American  man  originated 
in  Americ;,  and  was  not  a  descendant  of  Adam  and 
Eve.  The  peculiar  color  of  the  Red  Skins  is  their 
special  aij,'ument.  Mr.  de  Quatrefages,  however,  justly 
remarks  that,  of  the  four  groups  into  which  the  color 
of  the  human  races  may  be  divided,  the  least  charac- 


'  Elis^e  Reclus,  p.  439. 

'  Cf.  de  Quatrefages,  ch.  xxiii. 


'  Max  Miiller,   Lectures  on  the 
Science  of  Language,  p.  22. 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN   MAN. 


11 


teristic  is  the  red.  On  the  one  hand,  in  America  the 
Peruvian,  the  Araucanian,  and  other  southwestern 
races  are  more  or  less  deep  brown,  and  the  Brazilio- 
Guaranians  are  of  a  yellowish  color,  slightly  tinted 
with  red.  On  the  other  hand,  there  has  been  found  a 
tribe  on  the  island  of  Formosa  as  red  as  the  Algon- 
quins,  and  more  or  less  copper-tints  are  met  with  among 
Corean  and  African  populations.  Moreover,  the  red 
color  appears  as  the  sole  effect  of  the  crossing  between 
races,  neither  of  which  possesses  it.  Fitzroy  informs 
us  that  in  New  Zealand  it  frequently  characterizes  the 
half-breeds  of  English  and  Maories,  as  the  yellow  is 
generally  the  color  of  the  mulattoes.^ 

H.  H.  Bancroft  assures  us  that  "  the  question  of  the 
unity  of  the  human  kind,  as  considered  without  bias  by 
modern  scientific  men,  remains  undetermined,  though  it 
may  be  fairly  said  that  the  best  of  the  argument  is  on 
the  side  of  those  who  maintain  the  primitive  diversity 
of  man,"  "^  his  principal  argument  being  an  inference 
from  the  alleged  discrepancy  between  the  chronology 
of  the  Holy  Bible  and  that  of  modern  science.^ 

This  position  is,  however,  opposed  by  philosophy  and 
science  as  well  as  by  the  teachings  of  religion.  It  is 
argued,  indeed,  that  Almighty  God  never  makes  use  of 
two  diflferent  means  when  one  is  suflBcient  to  procure 
the  desired  effect.  There  was  no  need  of  an  original 
human  couple  to  people  America,  even  though  it  should 
be  proved  that  Adam  was  created  in  the  Eastern  Con- 
tinent. It  is  an  established  fact,  also,  that,  no  matter 
how  far  we  ascend  the  course  of  time,  we  always  find 
the  man  of  the  New  World  perfectly  similar  in  skeleton 
and  bones  to  the  man  of  the  Old  World — a  fact  all  the 
more  striking  as  the  other  mammals  of  the  two  conti- 

»  De  Quatrefages,  p.  359.  » Ibid.,  p.  9. 

*  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  8. 


I 


12 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


nents  greatly  diflfer  in  that  respect  from  one  another.^ 
The  same  similarity  is  observable  in  the  works  of  man 
in  both  hemispheres :  weapons,  implements,  earthen- 
ware, all  have  the  same  shapes,  the  same  varieties,  the 
same  ornaments.  In  both  continents  man  manifests 
the  same  instincts  of  association,  the  same  wants  lead 
him  to  the  same  means  of  providing  for  them.  The 
identity  of  man's  ingenuity  in  all  countries,  in  all 
climes,  is  not  less  remarkable  nor  less  conclusive  than 
the  uniformity  of  his  bodily  structure."^  "  I  hold,"  says 
Winchell,  "that  the  blood  of  the  first  human  stock 
flows  in  the  veins  of  every  living  human  being ;"  and 
in  regard  to  the  American  nations,  he  adds,  in  particu- 
lar, that  **  all  researches  hitherto  made  have  resulted  in 
the  conviction  that  an  American  race  of  men,  as  dis- 
tinct from  Mongoloids,  is  only  a  prepossession  arising 
from  their  continental  isolation  and  the  remoteness 
from  their  Asiatic  kinsmen." ' 

Abbott  made  similar  statements  before  the  Boston 
Society  of  Natural  Sciences.  "  All  who  examine  the 
localities,"  he  said,  '•'  admit  that  the  evidences  of  man 
in  the  so-called  palaeolithic  or  river-drift  age,  are 
essentially  the  same  both  in  Europe  and  America ;" 
and  Professor  Putnam,  before  the  Boston  Natural 
History  Society,  repeated  the  same.  "  You  will  have 
noticed,"  said  he,  "  from  the  comparison  of  the  forms 
of  the  implements,  that  man's  requirements  were  about 
the  same  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  when  he  was 
living  under  conditions  of  climate  and  environment 
which  must  have  been  very  nearly  alike  on  both  conti- 
nents, and  when  such  animals  as  the  mammoth  and 
the  mastodon,  with  others  now  extinct,  were  his  con- 


*  Cf.   A.   von    Humboldt,   Vues, 
Introd.,  vii. 


'  Congrfis   Scient.,  viii.  Bee.  pp. 
128,  129. 
'  Preadamites,  pp.  v,  67. 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


13 


1 


i 


temporaries."  ^  Johannes  Miiller,  in  his  "  Philosophy 
of  Man,"  says,  "The  different  races  of  mankind  are 
forms  of  one  sole  species,  by  the  union  of  two  of  whose 
members  descendants  are  propagated.  They  are  not 
different  species  of  a  genus,  since,  in  that  case,  their 
hybrid  descendants  would  remain  unfruitful."  Von 
Humboldt  remarks,^  "  Whilst  we  maintain  the  unity 
of  the  human  species,  we  at  the  same  time  repel  the 
depressing  assumption  of  superior  and  inferior  races  of 
men.  There  are  nations  more  susceptible  of  cultiva- 
tion, more  highly  civilized,  more  ennobled  by  cultiva- 
tion than  others,  but  none  in  themselves  nobler  than 
others."  '^  European  scientists  and  philosophers  are,  after 
all,  almost  a  unit  in  accepting  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  unity  of  the  human  race  ;  nor  would  it  accord  with 
sound  reason  to  grant  any  importance  in  the  discussion 
to  the  vague  and  senseless  traditions  of  American  tribes 
that  have,  almost  each  one,  a  cosmogony  of  their  own. 
The  Marquis  de  Nadaillac  *  concludes  the  argument 
by  stating  that  by  various  reasons  we  are  led  to  decide 
against  the  existence  of  autochthonous  man  in  the  New 
World.^  Professor  A.  de  Quatrefages  devotes  several 
chapters  of  his  "  Human  Species"  to  the  scientific 
proofs  of  the  unity  of  mankind.  Morton  and  Agassiz, 
who  upheld  the  distinct,  autochthonous  origin  of  the 
American  Indian,  were  also  taken  to  task  by  such 
writers  as  Wilson,  Latham,  and  Pickering ;  and  even 
two  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  evolutionists  reject 
the  autochthonous  view ;  for  Darwin's  "  Descent  of 
Man"  and  Haeckel's  "  History  of  Creation"  consider 


*  CongrtSs  Scient.,    viii.    sec.    p. 
128,  n.  5. 

■''  Kosmos,  vol.  i.  p.  362. 
'  Ap.  Foster,  p.  366. 

*  Prehistoric  America,  p.  519. 


*  Cf.  the  learned  lecture  of  Fr. 
Hettinger,  "  Apologie  ties  Christen- 
thums,"  Bd.  ii.  :  "  Die  Abfitam- 
mung  des  Menschengeschlechtes 
von  Einem  Paare." 


14 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


the  American  man  as  an  emigrant  of  the  Old  World, 
in  whatever  way  the  race  may  have  developed.  The 
autochthonous  view  is  decidedly  losing  ground.*  "  The 
essential  unity  of  mankind  in  all  the  peculiar  charac- 
teristics of  humanity  is  an  incontestable  fact  which 
cannot  be  affected  by  any  differences  of  race  or  lan- 
guage. Whatever  theory  denies  this  fact  or  makes 
[tries  to  make]  it  uncertain  is  false  to  human  nature, 
as  it  appears  and  speaks  for  itself  in  every  race  and  in 
every  language."  "^ 

Professor  Winchell  admits  the  unity  of  mankind 
and  the  exotic  origin  of  the  American  natives,  but 
denies  their  descent  from  our  first  parents,  Adam  and 
Eve.  Winchell  has  written  a  book  entitled  "  Pread- 
amites ;  or,  A  Demonstration  of  the  Existence  of  Men 
before  Adam,"  a  book  almost  as  replete  with  facts  and 
science  as  with  suppositions  and  erroneous  guess-work. 
He  devotes  six  of  the  four  hundred  and  seventy-four 
pages,  namely.  Chapter  XII.,  to  the  discussion  of  the 
subject  announced,  and  touches  upon  it  several  times 
in  the  rest  of  his  learned  and  interesting  work.  He 
claims,  rather  broadly,  that  until  the  Spanish  discovery 
all  the  aboriginal  families  of  our  continent  had  immi- 
grated either  from  Asia  or  from  Polynesia,  and  that 
they  all  originally  belonged  to  the  Mongoloid  race ; 
and  he  pretends  that  the  Mongoloids  were  no  descend- 
ants of  Adam,  but  anterior  to  him. 

It  is  evident  that  we  can  afford  no  space  to  follow 
the  professor  in  all  his  hypotheses  and  statements,  but 
our  subject  requires  that  we  should  make  one  or  two 
remarks  bearing  on  the  main  issue. 

The  author  candidly  says,^  "  In  maintaining  that 


»  Winsor,  vol.  i.  pp.  374,  375. 
'  Baldwin,    Prehistoric    Nations, 
p.  IG. 


Preadamites,  p.  445. 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


15 


the  black  [and  other]  races  are  descended  from  pre- 
adamites,  I  have  depended  largely  on  the  truth  of  the 
two  following  propositions :  (1)  The  time  from  Adam 
(according  to  accepted  chronology)  [he  means  the 
chronology  of  the  Protestant  bishop,  Usher]  to  the 
date  at  which  we  know  the  negro  tyj)e  had  been  fully 
established  is  vastly  too  brief  for  so  great  a  divergence, 
in  view  of  the  imperceptible  amount  of  divergence 
since  such  date.  (2)  No  amount  of  time  would  suffice 
for  the  divergence  of  the  black  races  from  the  white 
man's  Adam,  since  that  would  imply  degeneracy  of  a 
racial  and  continental  extent,  and  this  is  contrary  to 
the  recognized  principle  of  progress  in  nature." 

We  contest  the  truth  of  these  two  propositions  on 
the  following  grounds : 

As  we  shall  more  fully  notice  farther  on,  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Bible  chronology  varies  widely,  and, 
in  fact,  there  is  not,  strictly  speaking,  any  Bible  chro- 
nology. Consequently,  the  time  intervening  between 
Adam  and  the  establishment  of  the  negro  type  cannot, 
from  the  Bible,  be  determined  with  any  certainty. 

Winchell  states  ^  that  the  negro  race  was  fully  estab- 
lished two  thousand  years  before  Christ,  and  that  the 
amount  of  its  divergence  since  that  date  is  impercepti- 
ble. If,  therefore,  we  admit  with  him  the  thepry  of 
slow  progress,  the  principle  of  continuity,  we  shall  be 
driven  to  accept  an  antiquity  of  the  human  kind  more 
enormous,  more  fabulous,  than  that  expressed  by  the 
millions  of  years  of  the  wildest  speculators,  from  whom 
Winchell  himself  seems  to  dissent.^ 

The  imperceptible  divergence  of  the  negro  race  from 
its  own  type  of  four  thousand  years  ago  is  no  basis  of 
calculation  of  the  time  needed  for  the  development  of 


1  Ch.  xiii. 


'  Ch.  xxvii. 


16 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


this  ancient  type  ;  since  it  is  rational  to  believe  that  the 
moral   and   the   physical   circumstances,   which    have 
caused  the  racial  features  of  the  Negroes,  necessarily 
tend  to  preserve  intact  the  effect  of  their  former  in- 
fluence.    As  a  consequence  of  this  action  of  enduring 
circumstances,  we  find  all  the  various  types  of  mankind 
in  various  countries,  and  there  preserved,  under  the 
same    or    similar   material    and    religious   conditions. 
Winchell  concurs  in  this  view  when  he  says,  "  Because, 
locally  and  temporarily,  physical  conditions  may  re- 
main unchanged,  it  follows  that  co-ordinated  organiza- 
tion may,  locally  and  temporarily,  remain  unchanged."  ^ 
Darwin  states  that  the  result  of  his  "  Natural  Selec- 
tion" is,  essentially,  to  adapt  animals  and  plants  to  the 
conditions  of  existence  in  which  they  have  to  live. 
But,  if  harmony  is  once  established  between  organized 
beings  and  their  surroundings,  the  "  Struggle  for  Ex- 
istence" and  "  Selection"  could  only  result  in  consoli- 
dating it :   the  conditions  of  life,  alterative  in   their 
action  at  first,  become  preservative  of  their  eventual 
results.^     The  space  between  Adam  and  two  thousand 
years  before  Christ  may  have  been  quite  sufiicient  to 
change   the  color  of  the  skin  and  other  features  of 
either  the  black,  the  yellow,  or  the  white  race,  when, 
as  we .  can  notice,  a  much  shorter  period  suffices  to  im- 
prove the  lower  races  placed  in  more  favorable  circum- 
stances of  climate,  food,  and  education,  and  to  degrade 
better  stock  under  adverse  conditions.^ 

In  regard  to  the  second  proposition  we  should  re- 
mark,— 

It  is  hardly  proper  for  science  to  establish  pre- 
tendedly  infallible  principles,  such  as  "  progress  in 
nature,"  and  to  set  aside  contradicting  facts,  especially 


>  p.  270. 

*  Cf.  de  Quatrefages,  p.  96. 


'  Dr.  Whedon,  ap.  Winchell,  p. 
279 ;  cf.  Southall,  p.  27. 


ORIGIN   OF    THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


17 


re- 


11,  p. 


when  both  history  and  daily  experience  put  forth  a 
continual  protest. 

As  plants  and  brutes  can  be  improved  by  training 
and  cultivation,  so  they  will  degenerate  to  their  lowest 
specific  capacity  and  worth  if  only  neglected  by  man. 
Any  farmer  will  testify  to  this  universal  law  of  nature. 
Why  not  apply  it  to  man  ? 

Winchell  himself  agrees  that  "detached  fragments 
of  races  but  slightly  advanced,  because  they  have  been 
hemmed  within  a  range  of  conditions  so  hostile  to  ad- 
vancement as  •  to  have  arrested  the  normal  progress 
which  the  main  body  of  their  race  proceeded  to 
achieve.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  facts  of  bio- 
logical history  at  large."  ^  But,  if  accidental  circum- 
stances do  foil  the  essential  law  of  progress,  in  prevent- 
ing progress,  why  not  in  causing  retrogression  ?  The 
professor  justly  felt  the  need  of  giving  this  useless  warn- 
ing :  "  Great  care,"  indeed,  "  must  be  exercised,  to 
eliminate  all  cases  of  real  degradation  below  any  normal 
condition  in  the  past  life  of  the  race."  "^ 

The  author  candidly  acknowledges  that  "  indeed, 
since,  in  the  outward  progress  of  physical  processes, 
there  may  occur  temporary  and  local  relapses  to  con- 
ditions once  passed,  it  follows  that  co-ordinated  organi- 
zation may  experience  local  and  temporary  retro- 
gression." ^ 

Notwithstanding  such  admitted  facts,  the  iron-cast 
a  priori  principles  must  be  saved,  and  the  avrdg  l<^>7  an- 
tidote is  administered  :  "  But  the  progressive  tenor  of 
the  history  of  organization  is  as  manifest  as  the  progress 
implied  in  the  principle  of  derivation."  *  Mr.  Winchell 
relates  several  instances  of  human  degradation :  the 
Fuegians,   the   Dyaks  of   Borneo,  the   Botecudos  of 


>  Pp.  297,  298. 
» P.  298. 
I.— 2 


»  P.  270. 
*Ibid. 


18 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    JiEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Brazil,  natives  of  west-coast  districts  of  Africa,  Portu- 
guese in  the  environs  of  Malacca ; '  but  he  calls  them 
"  cultural,  not  structural ;"  although  both  their  psycho- 
logical and  physical  features  are  greatly  below  those  of 
their  kindred  race  and  of  several  branches  of  the 
negro  race  itself.  He  calls  them  local,  not  "  race-wide 
nor  continent-wide."  This  last  assertion  is  hard  to 
disprove,  as  its  discussion  would  require  arguments 
from  prehistoric  times ;  but,  if  the  law  of  progress 
cannot  prevent  retrogression  in  one  part  of  a  continent 
or  of  a  race,  why  should  it  in  another,  or  in  the  whole 
of  it? 

It  is  a  known  fact  that  the  condition  of  the  natives 
of  the  continent  of  Australia,  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  continent  of  Africa,  and  of  a  great  portion  of  the 
continent  of  South  America,  is  most  deplorable  and  a 
disgrace  to  our  kind.  But  who  shall  scientifically  es- 
tablish that  this  low  condition  is  rather  stagnation  than 
degradation  ?  Either  one  is  opposed  to  the  imaginary 
law  of  progress,  to  the  principle  of  continuity  and  of 
derivation,  and  to  the  modern  doctrine  of  evolution. 
Professor  E.  R.  Lankester  considers  the  natives  of  the 
Australian  continent  as  descendants  of  a  more  civilized 
race.^ 

We  rather  admit,  with  ancient  history  and  tradition, 
with  sound  mental  philosophy  and  a  not  inconsiderable 
school  of  modern  science,  that  man  was  more  beautiful, 
more  intelligent,  and  happier  when  he  came  from  the 
hand  of  his  Creator  than,  as  a  whole,  he  is  now  ;  that 
the  negro  race,  and  even  the  Mongoloid  race,  are 
degenerated  descendants  of  the  common  human  stock  ; 
and  it  would  not  be  hard  to  prove  that  the  various 
tribes  and  families  of  nations  have  grown  less  and  still 


» p.  277. 


» Winchell,  p.  490. 


ORIGIN   OP   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


19 


till 


grow  less,  in  the  proportion  of  their  neglect  or  aban- 
donment of  the  divine  law,  either  primeval,  Mosaic,  or 
Christian. 

The  only  plausible  argument  in  support  of  the  theory 
of  preadamites  is  the  one  which  the  author  endeavors 
to  draw  from  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis, — namely, 
from  the  punishment  of  Cain  after  slaying  his  brother. 
The  biblical  narrative  is  not,  however,  correctly  re- 
ported, but  rather  commented  in  a  manner  to  suit  the 
preconceived  theory.' 

Thus,  it  is  not  correct  to  say  that  "  Cain  recognizes 
the  existence  of  some  people  in  the  regions  remote 
from  Eden,  from  whom  he  might  apprehend  bodily 
danger."  Holy  Scripture  only  states  that  Cain  was 
condemned  to  be  a  vagabond  and  a  fugitive  on  the 
earth,  and  that  he  dwelt  at  the  east  side  of  Eden,  in 
the  land  of  Nod  (of  exile),  according  to  the  Hebrew. 
But  there  is  no  mention  of  any  other  people  there.^ 
It  is  not  correct  to  say  that  "  Cain  anticipates  danger, 
not  because  they  would  recognize  him  as  an  offender, 
but  because  he  would  be  a  foreigner  and  a  stranger." 
The  Scripture  plainly  states  that  Cain,  hearing  the 
sentence  of  his  condemnation,  feared  that  any  one  who 
would  find  him,  that  is,  recognize  him  as  the  murderer 
of  his  brother,  would  inflict  upon  him  the  just  punish- 
rarnt  of  death.  His  only  hope,  perhaps  his  request, 
was  not  to  be  recognized,  to  become  like  a  foreigner 
and  a  stranger.  And  this  desire  was  granted  him  by 
the  Lord,  who  set  a  mark  upon  Cain,  that  whcsoever 
found  him  should  not  kill  him.  Cain  had  not  to  fear 
preadamites  who,  if  supposed  to  be  men,  cannot  be 
supposed  ready  to  wantonly  kill  the  son  of  one  of  their 
neighbors  and  relatives,  as  Adam  would  have  been  to 

'  See  Preadamites,  p.  189,  seq.  *  Gen.  iv.  12,  seq. 


7» 


II 


f 


i'i 


20 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORK   COLUMBUS. 


them.  But  he  justly  feared  those  whom  he  had  so 
grievously  injured  by  the  murder  of  their  son,  their 
brother,  or  uncle.  It  is,  indeed,  very  possible,  if  not 
rather  })robable,  that  Adam  and  Eve  had  quite  a  num- 
ber of  sons  and  daughters,  grandchildren  and  great- 
grandchildren at  the  epoch  of  Cain's  crime.  Nor  is  it, 
finally,  correct  to  say  that  "  Cain  found  his  wife  in  the 
region  to  which  he  removed."  The  Bible  only  states 
that  Cain  knew  his  wife,  and  she  conceived  and  brought 
forth  Henoch.  He  had  taken  iiis  wife  among  his  near 
relatives,  because,  there  being  none  others  to  select,  he 
was  dispensed  from  the  laws  prohibiting  such  mar- 
riages ;  and  we  may  readily  presume  that  this  dutiful 
woman  followed  her  husband  even  in  his  disgrace  and 
exile.^ 

The  descent  of  mankind  from  a  single  pair  is  beyond 
a  doubt,  but  from  this  it  does  not  necessarily  follow 
that  the  first  man  in  America  was  not  autochthonous,^ 
that  Adam  and  Eve  were  not  created  in  America,  nor 
even  tha^.  the  ark  of  Noe  did  not  land  on  some  one  of 
our  moantains.  All  such  doubts  were  never  defined, 
either  by  science  or  by  religion.  Nadaillac  does  not 
accep :,  yet  records,  the  opinion  of  recent  authors  who 
think  +^at  when  Europe  was  inhabited  by  wandering 
savages,  whose  only  weapons  were  roughly  hewn  stone, 
America  was  already  peopled  by  men  who  built  cities, 
raised  monuments,  and  had  attained  to  a  high  degree 
of  culture,'^ 

Be:  'es  this  earlier  American  civilization  described 
by  Plato,  we  might  find  another  argument  in  favor  of 
Adam's  and  Noe's  American  nationality  in  the  fact 


'  The  other  points  which  Win-     are    hardly    deserving   of    serious 
chell  tries  tu  make   in  th3  same     coa^ideration. 
cliapter  (xi*. )  of  his  "  PreadamiUw"        *  C^^ngrfei  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  129. 

•  Prehiutoric  America,  p.  13. 


ORKJIN    OF   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


21 


that,  as  a  whole,  the  New- World  aborigines  have  pre- 
served a  clearer  and  more  accurate  remembrance  of 
the  great  archaic  events  narrated  in  Holy  Writ  than 
the  nations  of  the  eastern  hemisphere,  with  the  only 
exception  of  the  chosen  people  of  God.  In  corrobora- 
tion of  this  thesis,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  remark 
that  Greek  mythology  of  the  home  of  the  gods  agrees 
with  the  Hibernian  Christian  idea  of  the  Land  of  the 
Blessed,  and  the  earthly  paradise  of  Holy  Scripture 
being  situated  beyond  the  western  limits  of  Europe. 
Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  a  monk  geographer  of  the  sixth 
century,  considered  Plato's  description  of  Atlantis  as 
a  confirmation  of  the  teaching  which  he  ascribed  to 
Moses, — namely,  that  the  Western  Continent  was  the 
cradle  of  humanity  ;  ^  and,  invoking  the  authority  of 
several  Holy  Fathers,  he  remarked  that  the  ocean 
divides  the  whole  earth  into  two  parts,  the  one  of 
which  we  inhabit  he  said,  and  the  other,  the  first 
dwelling  of  man,  the  ancient  paradise  situated  beyond 
the  waters  and  reaching  up  into  heaven.^  Galindo 
also  places  Paradise  in  the  New  World  ;  H.  I^.  Morgan 
locates  it  in  the  valley  of  the  Columbia  River ;  and 
Dr.  R.  Falb  fancies  that  the  cradle  of  man  stood 
originally  in  the  plateaus  of  Bolivia  and  Peru.^ 

The  latest  discoverer  of  America,  Christopher  Co- 
lumbus himself,  was  convinced  that,  on  the  northern 
^joast  of  ancient  Brazil,  he  had  knocked  at  the  gate  of 
the  earthly  paradise.  In  a  letter,  dated  February,  1502, 
and  addressed  to  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  he  relates  how, 


"lOUfl 

12«, 


'  KretHchmer,  S.  156. 


current  in  the  Old  World,   which 


'  Gravier,  p.  xx.     ;,  n.  2,  refer-  placed  the  cradle  of  the  race  in  1  he 

ring   to    Mr.   Chart<.  i,   Voyjigeurs  Indian  Ocean  haw  been  .idvocrtted 

Anciens  et  ModenieH,  t.  ii.  p.  10.  in  onr  day  by   Haeckel,   CivKiKui, 

'  Rev.  Zahm,  in  the  October,  1894,  and  Winclu^ll.    (WinHor,  v>.>l.  i.  p. 

nuriber  of  the  American  EcclcHiiw-  1)72;  Winchell,  ch.  xxii.) 
tical  Review.    The  be'ief,  so  long 


22 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


in  a  former  voyage,  he  had  followed,  a  distance  of  three 
hundred  and  thirty-three  leagues,  the  coast  of  the 
Asiatic  continent ;  how  he  had  been  compelled  to  hur- 
riedly return  to  Spain,  leaving  his  brothers  and  many 
men  in  the  midst  of  privation  and  danger.  "  But,"  he 
adds,  "  I  returned  to  them  and  sailed  to  the  gulf,  where 
I  found  boundless  countries  and  the  waters  of  the  sweet 
ocean.  I  believed,  and  do  believe,  that  which  so  many 
saints  and  learned  theologians  believed  and  yet  believe, 
— to  wit,  that  in  that  neighborhood  was  situated  the 
earthly  paradise."  The  distress  of  his  crew  prevented 
him  from  making  further  exploration  of  Adam's  happy 
home,  but  he  was  anxious  to  visit  it  again.^  When  he 
saw  the  distant  land  at  the  delta  of  the  Orinoco,  he 
called  it  "  Isla  Santa,"  Holy  Isle,  and  considered  it  as 
one  of  the  outposts  of  Eden.^ 

Should  Columbus  truly  have  discovered  near  the 
coast  of  Paria  the  delightful  spot  where  our  first 
parents  were  created,  it  would  follow  that  the  first  man 
of  America  was  the  first  of  all  Christians  in  America, 
having  had  God  himself  or  his  angels  to  teach  him  not 
only  natural  and  divine  law,  but  also  and  in  particular 
the  central  tenet  of  Christian  religion, — namely,  the 
victory  over  Satan  and  the  redemption  of  fallen  man- 


'  Navarrete,  t.  ii.  p.  311.  The 
document  seeiuK  to  be  a  copy  made 
by  Ferdinand,  Columbus's  son,  and 
is  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the 
Duke  of  Veragua  :  "  Descubr^  deste 
camino,  y  givn^  mil  ^>  cuatrocientas 
islas,  y  trescientas  y  trienta  y  tree 
leguas  de  la  tierra  firme  de  Asia. 
.  .  .  Despues  fu^  necessario  de 
venir  d  Espafia  apriesa,  y  dej6  alia 
dos  herraanos  con  inucha  gente  en 
mucha  necesidad  y  peligro.  Tornd 
&  ellos  con  remedio  y  hied  navega- 
cion  nueva  iiiicia  al  antro,  adonde 


yo  falle  tierras  inlinitisimas  y  el 
agua  de  la  mar  dulce.  Crei  6  creo 
aquello  que  creyeron  y  creen  tantos 
santoe  y  sabios  te61ogos,  que  alii 
en  la  comarca  es  el  Paraiso  lerrenal. 
La  necesidad  en  que  yo  habia  de- 
jado  il  mis  hermanos  y  aquella 
gent«  fud  causa  que  yo  non  me  de- 
tuviesse  d  esperimentar  maa  esaa 
partes,  y  volviese  d  mas  andar  a 
ellos." 

'  Amer.   Cath.   Quar.   Rev.,  vol, 
xvii.  p.  63(5. 


;      I 


ORIGIN   OF   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


28 


kind,  through  the  great  woman's  son  or  the  passion  and 
death  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.^ 

The  reader  will  have  noticed,  however,  that  when 
Columbus  thought  he  had  discovered  the  earthly  para- 
dise, he  was  convinced  of  being  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  Asiatic  continent ;  and  this  persuasion,  erroneous 
though  it  was,  is  proof  that  the  great  discoverer  actually 
believed  the  tradition,  generally  accepted  by  learned  and 
ignorant  alike,  that  Asia  not  only  was  the  home  of  our 
first  parents,  but  also  the  site  of  the  gigantic  tower  of 
Noe's  grandchildren.  This  continent  possesses  numer- 
ous specimens  yet  of  the  three  principal  races  of  the 
human  kind  and  of  the  three  great  families  of  human 
speech :  of  the  monosyllabic,  the  inflective,  and  the 
agglutinative  languages ;  a  fact  which  evidently  favors 
the  theory  of  the  Asiatic  origin  of  mankind.'^ 

The  great  scientist  de  Quatrefages  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  original  localization  of  man  took  place  in 
western  Mongolia ;  stating,  furthermore,  that  no  facts 
have  as  yet  been  discovered  which  authorize  us  to  place 
the  cradle  of  the  human  race  elsewhere  than  in  Asia. 
There  are  none,  he  adds,  which  lead  us  to  seek  the  ori- 
gin of  man  in  hot  regions  either  of  existing  continents 
or  of  one  which  is  said  to  have  disappeared,  such  as 
"  Lemuria."  This  view,  which  has  been  frequently 
expressed,  rests  entirely  upon  the  belief  that  the  climate 
of  the  globe  was  the  same  at  the  time  of  the  appearance 
of  man  a^  it  is  now.  Modern  science  has  taught  us  that 
this  is  an  error.  From  our  present  knowledge  of  that 
time,  there  is  nothing  against  our  first  ancestors  having 
found  favorable  conditions  of  existence  in  northern 


1  Gen.  iii.  14,  16  :  "  And  the  Lord 
God  said  to  the  serpent,  .  .  .  I  will 
put  enmities  between  thee  and  the 


woman,    and    thy    seed   and    her 
seed  :  she  shall  crush  thy  head." 

'  Congriis    Scient.,    viii.    sec.    p. 
10(). 


"'l&aaSStifiiiSiSm 


24 


HISTORY   OP    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Asia,  which  is  indicated  as  the  cradle  of  mankind  by 
80  many  facts  borrowed  from  the  history  of  man  and 
from  that  of  animals  and  plants/ 

Tradition  is  further  supported  and  specified  by  the 
conclusions  of  assyriologists,  who  are  able  to  carry 
back  the  history  of  our  species  in  Central  Asia,  if  not 
in  Mesopotamia,  to  a  more  remote  period  than  can  pos- 
sibly, with  any  show  of  reason,  be  claimed  for  it  by  the 
chronologists  of  India,  China,  or  Egypt.^ 

Neither  do  the  traditions  of  the  New  World  contra- 
dict those  of  the  Old.  Several  of  the  American  abo- 
rigines have  a  clear  notion  of  a  world  situated  beyond 
the  seven  seas  ;^  and,  if  we  consult  the  histories  of  the 
most  ancient  aborigines,  we  shall  readily  be  convinced 
that  the  transmarine  continent  had  been  their  former 
home.  The  most  ancient  of  all  American  civilized  na- 
tions appear  to  be  the  Quiches  of  the  Maya  nation,  and 
their  histories  relate  that  their  great  leader  and  hero-god, 
Votan,  had  assisted  at  the  building  of  the  tower  of  Babel; 
and  that  after  the  confusion  of  tongues  he  led  a  portion 
of  the  dispersed  people  to  America,  where  he  established 
the  kingdom  of  Xibalba  and  built  the  city  of  Palenque.* 
This  event  is  laid  a  thousand  years  before  Christ,  a  date 
which  is  confirmed  by  the  Chimalpopoca  manuscript.^ 

We  may,  for  curiosity's  sake,  add  that,  from  the 
confused  tradition  of  the  Tzendals  or  Quiches  as  ren- 
dered by  Nunez  de  la  Vega  and  Ordonez  y  Aguiar,  it 
seems  that  Votan  proceeded  by  divine  command  to 


"  De    Quatrefages,    The    Human     27,   referring  to  Clavigero,    Storia 


Species,  pp.  177,  178. 

'  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p.  247. 

'  Grpvier,  p.  xxxiii,  n.  2,  refer- 
ring to  von  Humboldt,  Examen 
Crit.,  t.  i.  p.  195. 

♦  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  pp.  12, 


Ant.  del  Messico,  t.  iv.  p.  15,  and 
stating  that  Heredia  y  Sarmiento, 
Sermones,  p.  84,  follows  the  same 
opinion. 

»  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  453, 
referring  to  Braaseur  de  Bourbourg, 
Popol  Vuh,  p.  Ixxxviii. 


ORIGIN    OF   THE   AMERICAN    MAN. 


25 


America,  and  there  portioned  out  the  land — a  view  also 
taken  by  Clavigero,^  Ordofiez  proceeds  to  say  that 
Votan,  after  establishing  his  government,  made  four  or 
more  visits  to  his  former  home.  On  his  first  voyage 
he  came  to  a  great  city  where  a  magnificent  temple  was 
in  course  of  construction.  This  city  Ordonez  supposed 
to  be  Jerusalem.  He  next  visited  an  edifice  which 
had  been  originally  intended  to  reach  heaven — an  ob- 
ject defeated  by  a  confusion  of  tongues.  Finally  he 
was  allowed  to  penetrate  by  a  subterranean  passage  to 
the  root  of  heaven,  and  was  at  last  apotheosized.^ 

We  accord  no  great  weight  of  argument  to  these 
traditions,  evidently  disfigured  in  later  times,  but 
neither  can  we  ignore  both  the  written  and  the  oral 
records  of  almost  every  American  tribe,  stating  that 
the  land  where  they  live  was  not  the  home  of  their 
ancestors,  but  that  they  all  immigrated  from  foreign  or 
even  transmarine  countries. 

The  foregoing  and  other  arguments  are  summarized 
by  Mr.  Short,  who  says,  "  As  the  case  stands  in  the 
present  state  of  knowledge,  it  furnishes  strong  pre- 
sumptive evidence  that  man  is  not  autochthonic  here, 
but  exotic,  having  originated  in  the  Old  World,  per- 
haps thousands  of  years  prior  to  reaching  the  New." 

Bearing  on  this  subject  is  the  remarkable  statement 
made  by  Mr.  de  Quetrefages  at  the  meeting  of  the  In- 
ternational Congress  of  Anthropology  at  Brussels,  in 
1872,  where  he  biieHj  scl  Ibrtli  the  import  of  some  of 
the  literary  contributions,  by  saying  that,  even  in  the 
most  remote  ages,  the  migrations  of  races  took  place  on 
a  much  more  extended  scale  and  with  more  frequency 
than  was  believed  by  any  one  until  recently."' 


'  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  452,     brera,  Teatro,  in  Rio's  Dfcdcription, 
and  n.  56.  p.  84,  refers  to  the  same  legend. 

•■■  Ibid.,  p.  453  ;  adding  that  Ca-        '  eouthall,  p.  237. 


pp 


CHAPTER IL 


ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


•    i 


; 


In  regard  to  the  epoch  at  which  the  first  immigra- 
tions into  America  took  place,  there  exists  a  wide  di- 
vergence of  opinions.  As  yet  no  true  scientific  proof 
of  man's  great  antiquity  on  this  continent  is  at  hand, 
and  we  are  not  warranted  in  claiming  for  him  a  much 
longer  presence  than  that  assigned  to  him,  or,  rather,  to 
the  Mound-builders,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock, — namely, 
three  thousand  years.^ 

We  are  well  aware  that  our  modern  scientists  are 
scandalized  at  such  a  statement,  and  feel  it  our  duty 
to  inquire  into  the  apparition  of  the  first  American  man. 
We  have  already  remarked  that  Haeckel  and  others 
allow  the  ancestors  of  our  modern  anthropologists  to 
have  been  improving  their  species  at  a  time  when,  sci- 
entifically speaking,  the  earth  must  still  have  been  in 
a  state  of  white-hot  molten  matter ;  and  some  searchers 
after  the  first  human  American  man  fall  hardly  short  of 
the  excessive  exaggerations  of  the  Darwinian  school. 

A  preliminary  requisite  to  determine  the  age  of  man 
in  America  is  to  find  out  the  most  ancient  vestiges  he 
has  left  on  this  continent.  Scientists  have  not  been 
slow  in  looking  up  the  rude  geological  and  archaeologi- 
cal records  bearing  upon  the  subject,  and  not  a  few 
evidences  of  man's  antiquity  in  America  have  crowned 
their  zealous  efforts. 

In  their  hunger  and  thirst  after  salt,  the  Confederates, 
daring  the  late  war  of  secession,  had  the  good  fortune 


26 


'  Short,  The  North  Americans  of  Antiquity,  p.  130. 


I  1  \ 

I  !    1 


ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


27 


to  discover  a  bed  of  rock-salt  in  Petite  Anse,  a  small 
island  of  the  lower  Mississippi,  together  with  a  number 
of  mammoth  bones.  Below  the  remains  of  the  extinct 
elephant,  yet  close  to  the  layer  of  salt,  were  found  rem- 
nants of  braided  mats  and  entire  wicker  baskets  made  of 
reeds  of  the  arundinaria  macrosperma,  which  had  evi- 
dently been  used  by  ancient  inhabitants  of  Louisiana 
to  carry  away  the  salt.  From  the  discovery,  due  atten- 
tion being  paid  to  the  strata  of  sand  and  loam  under 
which  they  were  buried,  it  was  concluded  that  the  lower 
Mississippi  had  been  inhabited  during  the  so-called 
interglacial  period.^ 

These  conclusions,  however,  are  hazardous,  not  to  say 
a  latius  os.  The  discoveries  on  Petite  Anse  are  analo- 
gous to  those  made  in  the  year  1874,  in  the  loess  or 
lacustrine  deposits  of  Nebniska.  Many  remains  of 
mastodons  and  elephants  were  found  here  by  Dr. 
Aughey,  as  well  as  those  of  the  animals  now  living  in 
that  region,  together  with  the  fresh- water  and  land 
shells  peculiar  to  it.  In  them  Aughey  has  also  dis- 
covered an  arrow-point  and  a  spear-head,  both  excel- 
lent examples  of  those  well-chipped  implement*;  which 
are  regarded  as  typical  of  the  neolithic  age.  This 
intermingling  of  the  bones  of  extinct  and  of  living 
animals  appears  to  have  been  brought  about  by  the 
shifting  of  the  beds  of  the  vast  rivers  which  have  been 
flowing  for  ages  through  the  slight  and  easily  moved 
material.  The  finding,  therefore,  of  arrow-heads  of 
recent  Indian  type,  even  in  place  or  in  situ  under 
twenty  feet  of  loess  and  below  a  fossil  elephant-bone, 
cannot  be  considered  as  affording  any  stronger  proof 
of  the  antiquity  of  man  than  the  discovery  of  baskets 
on  the  Mississippi  delta,  or  of  pottery  and  mastodon- 


'  Rudolph  Cronau,  S.  20. 


28 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


bones  on  the  banks  of  the  Ashley  River  in  South 
Carolina/ 

Better  proofs  seem  to  be  afforded  by  the  interesting 
discoveries  of  Dr.  Abbott,  made  since  1873  in  the 
gravel  beds  of  the  Delaware  River  near  the  city  of 
Trenton.  This  gravel  fills  a  deep  channel  cut  into  a 
formation  called  Philadelphia  clay  and  deposited  by 
glaciers.  The  Trenton  gravel  is  consequently  post- 
glacial. In  these  beds  the  learned  geologist  has  un- 
earthed more  than  four  hundred  tools  and  weapons 
made  by,  and  for  the  use  of,  man.  They  are  of  ar- 
gillite  and  some  of  quartzite,  resembling  in  form  the 
palseoliths  of  the  Old  World,  and  likewise  fashioned  by 
eclats,  or  with  some  kind  of  a  hammer.^  Dr.  Abbott 
proclaimed  before  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  His- 
tory that,  when  the  torrential  rains  deposited  the 
gravel  of  Trenton,  man  lived  and  prospered  on  the 
banks  of  the  Delaware  River,  and,  less  indefinitely,  he 
wrote,  "  My  studies  of  these  palaeolithic  specimens  and 
of  their  positions  in  the  gravel  beds  and  overlying  soil 
have  led  me  to  conclude  that,  not  long  after  the  close 
of  the  last  glacial  period,  man  appeared  in  the  valley 
of  the  Delaware."  ^  Mr.  H.  C.  Lewis  has  shown  that  the 
"  Trenton  gravel  is  a  true  river-drift  of  post-glacial 
age,  and  the  most  recent  of  all  the  gravels  of  the  Dela- 
ware valley."  * 

We  should  not  venture  to  doubt  the  authenticity  of 
these  evidences  of  primeval  man,  were  it  not  for  other 
finds  that  the  doctor  has  made  by  the  side  of  the  chel- 
lean  implements ;  but  he  uncovered  also  three  human 
crania,  debris  of  others,  and  a  number  of  teeth,  the 


•  Winpor,  vol.  i.  p.  348. 

»  Rudolph  Cronau,  S.  23 ;  Con- 
gr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp.  81,  118, 
119. 


'  The  American  Naturalist,  vol. 
X.  p.  329,  ap.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  .333. 

*  Science,  i.  192,  193,  ap.  Win- 
chell,  p.  499. 


ANTKiUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


29 


crania  being  of  brachyceplialous  sliape.  This  circum- 
stance, says  the  learned  Marquis  de  NadaiUac,  requires 
us  to  be  cautious  in  admitting  the  Trenton  discoveries 
as  proofs  of  man's  great  antiquity  on  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware  ;  because,  if  hard-stone  implements  may  read- 
ily have  resisted  the  action  of  rushing  waters  and  of 
time,  it  is  not  so  easily  understood  how  human  bones 
and  entire  skulls  have  so  long  withstood  those  destruc- 
tive elements ;  nor  could  we,  knowing  that  the  first 
American  tribes  were  dolichoceplialous,  expect  to  find 
brachycephalous  crania  as  authentic  memorials  of  them.^ 
As  regards  the  stone  weapons  and  the  tools  of  the  Tren- 
ton gravel  beds,  it  may  not  be  put  of  place  to  remark 
that  the  flint  flakes  found  in  France  and  Portugal,  from 
which  Mr.  de  Mortillet  does  not  hesitate  to  deduce  an 
argument  for  the  existence  of  tertiary  man,  are,  after 
more  careful  examination,  proved,  by  such  authorities 
as  Virchow  and  Evans,  to  have  been  produced  by  the 
operation  of  natural  causes,  such  as  solar  heat  or  acci- 
dental percussion.  In  a  like  manner,  Mr.  iiolmes  has 
made  a  critical  investigation  of  the  deposits  and  flaked 
stones  of  the  Trenton  channel  under  exceptionally 
favorable  circumstances,  and  has  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  phenomena  observed  may  all  be  accounted  for 
as  a  result  of  the  vicissitudes  of  aboriginal  life  and 
occupation  within  the  last  few  hundred  years,  as  fully 
and  as  satisfactorily  as  by  jumping  thousands  of  years 
backward  into  the  unknown.'^ 

Hilborn  T.  Cresson  has  taken,  in  August,  1888, 
from  a  modified  drift  or  collection  of  loose  earth  and 
small  boulders  near  Medora,  Jackson  County,  Indiana, 
a  chipped  implement  of  gray  silex,  bearing  evidences  of 

*  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  119.     "  Glacial  Man  in  the  Trenton  Grav- 

*  Amer.   Cath.  Quar.   Eev.,   vol.     els."  in  Journal  of  Geology,  vol.  i., 
xviii.  p.  732,  referring  to  Holmes's     1893,  p.  32. 


30 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BKFORK   COLUMBUS. 


rude  human  art,  and  which,  as  to  age,  he  compares  to 
those  of  Trenton.' 

The  antiquity  of  man  in  America  seems  to  be  further 
attested  by  the  discoveries  of  Miss  Babbitt,  near  Little 
Falls,  Minnesota,  where,  in  the  years  1888  and  1889,  she 
found  what  might  be  called  a  factory  of  stone  weapons 
and  utensils :  a  great  number  of  quartzite  fragments, 
among  which  some  were  hardly  touched  by  an  intelli- 
gent hand  and  others  were  finely  finished.  They  all 
lay  within  a  small  space  of  post-glacial  dirt-and-gravel 
formation.^  Warren  Upham  has  noticed  in  Minnesota 
ten  terminal  moraines  or  glacial  deposits,  evidences  of 
the  repeated  advancement  and  regress  of  the  glaciers, 
and  between  the  eighth  and  the  ninth  were  found  these 
quartzite  implements.  Other  discoveries  of  the  same 
chronological  import  were  made  near  Bridger,  Wyo- 
ming, and,  in  1885,  by  Dr.  C.  L.  Metz,  at  Madisonville 
and  at  Loveland,  in  the  Little  Miami  Valley.  Profes- 
sor Wright  finds  that  the  deposit  at  Madisonville  clearly 
belongs  to  the  glacial-terrace  period,  and  is  underlain 
by  "  till,"  and,  consequently,  of  post-glacial  times,  while 
it  is  known  that  in  the  gravels  of  Loveland  bones  of  the 
mastodon  have  been  discovered.^  Mr.  Haynes  found 
similar  evidences  in  a  New  Hampshire  later  moraine, 
and  finally  at  Buckhorn  Creek,  Ohio,  in  the  year  1890. 
They  all  bear  witness  to  the  fact  that  man  was  living 
in  the  United  States  at  the  time  that  the  Greenland 
ice-sheets  were  covering  North  America  as  far  south 
as  New  York.  Mastodons,  elephants,  equines  have 
disappeared,  but  glacial  man  survived,  the  ancestor 
perhaps  of  our  northern  glacial  nation,  of  the  Esqui- 
maux.* 


*  Congr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  119. 

» Ibid.,  p.  120. 

'  AVinsor,  vol.  i.  p.  341. 


*  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp. 
81,  120,  121 ;  Rudolph  Cronau,  S. 
23.        , 


ANTKiUlTY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


81 


We  have  no  space  to  record  several  other  less  im- 
portant geological  or  arclueological  discoveries,  alleged 
as  arguments  for  the  great  antic^uity  of  the  aboriginal 
American  ;  but  we  should  not  pass  in  silence  two  others, 
whose  significance  would  be  to  increase  by  thousands 
the  number  of  years  that  man  has  been  living  on  this 
continent.  Hilborn  T.  Cresson,  mentioned  before,  un- 
earthed near  Claymont,  Delaware,  in  1887  and  in  1888, 
in  a  moraine  formation  of  advancing  glaciers,  two  im- 
plements of  stone  intentionally  shaped  by  means  of 
percussion  ;  and  the  conclusion  therefrom  is  that  the 
Trenton  man  would  be  the  Claymont's  junior  by  from 
twenty  to  a  hundred  thousand  years,  while  Professor 
Wright  considers  them  as  proving  the  presence  of  man 
at  a  far  earlier  period.^  He  further  adds  :  "  Mr.  Mc- 
Gee,  of  the  U.  8.  Geological  Survey,  differs  from  the 
interpretation  of  the  facts  given  by  Professor  Lewis  and 
myself,  in  that  he  postulates,  largely,  however,  on  the 
basis  of  facts  outside  of  this  region,  two  distinct  glacial 
periods,  and  attributes  the  Columbia  formation  or 
Philadelphia  clay  to  the  first,  w^liich  he  believes  to  be 
from  three  to  ten  times  as  remote  as  the  period  in  which 
the  Trenton  gravels  were  deposited.  If,  therefore,  Dr. 
Abbott's  implements  are  from  ten  thousand  to  fifteen 
thousand  years  old,  the  implements  discovered  by  Mr. 
Cresson  at  Claymont  would  have  been  shaped  some 
thirty  thousand  or  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
years  ago."  ^ 

Our  learned  men  who  inspected  both  the  Claymont 
baby  and  his  cradle  are  thus  at  vmr  in  assigning  the 
exact  date  of  his  birth,  and  foreign  archeeologists  still 
increase  the  confusion. 

Nadaillac  remarks  that  the  chronological  determina- 


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*  Wineor,  vol.  i.  p.  343. 


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32 


HISTOEY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


tion  of  the  spot  where  these  interesting  relics  were 
found  is  very  difficult,  all  the  more  for  the  absence  of 
other  characteristic  fossils  :  and  Arcelin  greatly  doubts 
their  authenticity,  because  of  their  being  discovered  so 
near  the  surface.  No  certain  conclusion,  therefore, 
could  be  drawn  from  them  regarding  the  antiquity  of 
primeval  American  people.^ 

A  few  years  ago  Mr.  Gushing,  a  member  of  the  ex- 
pedition sent  out  to  explore  Arizona,  made  the  startling 
announcement  that  he  had  found  evident  proof  of  man's 
existence  at  the  time  when  the  volcanoes,  extinct  since 
the  beginning  of  the  quaternary  epoch,  were  vomiting 
their  ashes  and  lava.'^  We  cannot  examine  the  correct- 
ness of  the  fact,  but  while  we  acknowledge  it  to  be  an 
evidence  of  man's  antiquity,  we  must  state  that  in  the 
present  condition  of  science  we  are  lacking  a  chronom- 
eter by  which  to  determine  when  the  Arizona  volcanoes 
were  extinguished. 

In  the  year  1866,  in  a  mining-shaft  of  Calaveras 
County,  California,  at  a  hundred  and  thirty  feet  below 
the  surface,  was  found  a  skull,  which,  under  the  name 
of  the  Calaveras  skull,  has  excited  much  interest.  It 
was  not  seen  in  situ  by  a  professional  geologist.  A  few 
weeks  after  the  discovery.  Professor  Whitney  visited  the 
spot  and  declared  the  skull  to  be  of  the  pliocene  (ter- 
tiary) age.  Aware  of  the  boldness  of  his  statement, 
he  says,^  "There  will  undoubtedly  be  much  hesitancy 
on  the  part  of  anthropologists  and  others  in  a  ept- 
ing  the  results  regarding  the  tertiary  age  of  man,  to 
which  our  investigations  seem  so  clearly  to  point." 
Indeed,  Powell  and  the  government  geologists  assign 


'  C!ongr^  Scient.,   viii.   sec.   pp. 
82,  119. 
*  Traneactions  of  the  New  York 


Academy  of  Anthropology,  Decem- 
ber, 1888. 

•  Memoirs    of    the    Museum    of 
Compar.  Zoology,  vol.  vi.  p.  ix. 


ANTIQUITY   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 


33 


the  skull  to  the  quaternary  time.  Dawkins^  thinks 
that  all  but  a  few  American  geologists  have  given 
up  the  pliocene  man,  and  that  the  chances  of  later 
interments,  of  accidents,  of  ancient  mines,  and  the 
presence  of  mustang  ponies  first  introduced  by  the 
Spaniards  and  found  in  the  same  California  gold- 
drift,  throw  insuperable  doubts  on  the  case.  "  Neither 
in  the  New  World  nor  the  Old  World,"  he  says,  "  is 
there  any  trace  of  pliocene  man  revealed  by  mod- 
ern discovery."  Southall  denies  the  bearing  of  all 
such  evidence.  Dawson''  thinks  the  arguments  of 
Whitney  inconclusive.  Nadaillac  hesitates  to  accept 
the  evidence,  and  enumerates  ihe  doubters.'  Win- 
chell  *  says,  "  No  doubt  can  remain  that  the  find  is 
genuine,  but  it  remains  to  prove  the  lava  overflow 
pliocene.     I  have  given  reasons  for  holding  it  quater- 


»  6 


nary 

Similar  discoveries,  equally  difficult  to  locate  in  re- 
gard to  time,  have  been  made  near  Lake  Managua, 
Nicaragua,  and  near  Carson,  Nevada,  where  either  a 
man  or  some  kind  of  a  sloth  has  left  its  footprints  on 
a  sedimentary  stratum.  Finally,  Professor  Winchell 
has  found  a  human  jaw  which  he  attributes  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  glacial  period.*  We  should,  how- 
ever, pay  no  greater  attention  to  all  these  relics  than 
the  learned  have  given  them,  and  hasten  rather  to 


'  North  Amer.  Rev.,  October, 
1883. 

»  Fossil  Men,  p.  345. 

»  Winsor,  vol.  i.  pp.  384,  385. 

*P.  500. 

*  Southall,  p.  558,  gives  a  start- 
ling note  regarding  the  Calaveras 
skull:  "Dr.  Andrews  informs  us 
that  the  Rev.  R.  W.  Patterson,  of 
Chicago,  tells  him  that  he  (Dr. 
Patterson)  was  informed  by  the 
Rev.  W.  W.  Brier,  a  reliable  min- 
I.— 8 


ister  of  Alvarado,  California,  that 
Brier's  brother,  a  miner,  was  one 
of  the  tv'o  men  who  took  the  eo- 
called  Calaveras  skull  from  a  cave 
in  the  sides  of  the  valley  and  placed 
it  in  the  shaft  where  it  was  found, 
and  that  the  whole  object  was  a 
practical  joke  to  deceive  Professor 
Whitney  the  geologist." 

•  CongrSs  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  120, 
n.  3,  p.  123. 


, 


H 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


inquire  into  the  age  of  those  human  remains,  which  are 
generally  admitted  as  being  possibly  genuine  and  au- 
thentic, and  from  which  it  appears  that  man  in  North 
America  dates  back  to  the  interglacial  period,  if  there 
was  any  such  period,  or  at  least  to  the  melting  of  the 
last  glaciers  in  the  United  States. 

Before  we  proceed,  however,  one  word  should  be 
inserted  in  regard  to  man's  antiquity  in  our  southern 
continent.  Here  we  meet  with  less  scientific  informa- 
tion than  we  do  in  the  North,  the  important  landmark 
of  the  glaciers  being  deficient;  but  the  explorations 
made  by  Mr.  Lund  are  none  the  less  of  the  high- 
est interest.  In  a  f^otto  near  the  Lagoa  do  Sumi- 
douro,  Brazil,  he  fouuu  human  bones  intermixed  with 
pieces  of  flint  bearing  the  evidences  of  intentional 
workmanship,  and  with  debris  of  extinct  animals,  such 
as  megatheria,  an  equine,  a  marsupial,  and  an  ape. 
Judging  from  the  bones,  that  ancient  race  seems  to 
have  been  robust,  of  rather  low  stature,  and  having  the 
forehead  high  and  rounding  in  spite  of  their  elongated 
cranium.  Some  anthropologists  are  of  the  opinion  that 
this  ancient  race  is  represented  yet  by  a  few  Ando- 
Peruvian  tribes,  in  particular  by  the  cannibal  Botocudos 
of  the  Brazilian  forests.^ 

The  association  of  such  remains  evidently  testifies  to 
a  respectable  antiquity.  Other  similar  discoveries  made 
in  the  province  of  Ceara  are  witnesses  of  a  remarkably 
dolichocephalic  race  with  depressed  frontal  bone.  A 
t'lmulus  opened  in  the  valley  of  Calabasso,  Chili,  con- 
tained a  skeleton  of  a  low-8i2ed  adult  female  of  dolicho- 
cephalic race,  by  whose  side  were  found  an  axe  and 


•  Nadaillac,  in  Congrfis  Scient., 
viii.  sec.  p.  127  ;  ref.  to  Peixoto 
and  I.  B.  de  Lacerda,  Contribu9oee 
ao  Eetudio  anthropologico  dan 
Bagas    indigenaa  do    Brazil ;    Ar- 


chivos  do  Museu  Nacional,  1876; 
Re^'i8ta  da  Exposi^ao  Brazileira, 
1882 ;  Peixoto,  Novos  Eetudioe 
craniologicos  sobre  os  Botocudos ; 
alii. 


ANTIQUITY   OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


35 


eight  stone  arrow-heads,  one  half  of  which  resemble 
some  discovered  in  Europe  but  never  in  America,  be- 
fore.^ On  the  left  bank  of  the  Frias,  at  sixty  miles 
above  Buenos  Ayres,  Mr.  Ameghino  has  brought  to 
light  a  great  quantity  of  human  fossils,  accompanied  by 
arrow-heads  and  knives  of  flint,  bodkins  of  bone,  and 
remains  of  animals  mostly  extinct,  as  of  the  toxodon, 
mylodon,  and  glyptodon.**  Burmeister  at  first  strongly 
opposed  the  contemporaneity  of  the  human  and  of  the 
adjacent  extinct  animals'  remains,  but  both  were  found 
covered  with  identical  dendrites,  while  many  among 
the  latter  bore  the  marks  of  the  human  hand,  and  not 
a  few  had  been  cleaved  when  fresh,  of  course,  with 
the  evident  purpose  of  extracting  their  marrow  for 
food.« 

No  one  should  try  to  weaken  the  conclusive  testi- 
mony of  all  these  discoveries  to  the  high  antiquity  of 
man's  presence  on  American  soil ;  but  neither  could 
any  one  attempt  to  draw  from  them  the  secret  of  their 
age,  or  the  year  or  the  century  of  man's  first  appear- 
ance on  this  our  continent;  while  the  age  of  these 
ancient  remains  cannot  be  established  by  any  accept- 
able chronometer,  nor  even  compared  with  any  chrono- 
logically known  events.  More  fortunate  is  the  student 
of  the  first  vestiges  of  man  in  North  America,  finding 
here  suflficient  data,  if  not  to  determine  their  exact 
age,  at  least  to  discuss  it ;  for,  indeed,  from  what  we 
have  seen  before,  should  the  recent  discoveries  be 
proved  authentic,  we  must  draw  the  conclusion  that 
man  existed  in  these  United  States^  during  the  inter- 
glacial  period,  or  at  the  time,  at  least,  of  the  glaciers' 

'  Nadoillac,   in  Congr^   Scient.,  La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre  en  la 

viii.  sec.  p.  128,  ref.  to  Dr.  Han-  Plata, 

sen,  Revue  d'Ethnographie,  1886.  *  Nadaillac,   in    Congr^  Scient., 

'  Nadaillac,   in  Congr^s   Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  128. 
viii.  sec.  p.  128,  ref.  to  Ameghino, 


36 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


/ 


latest  withdrawal ;  and  the  chronological  question  is 
thus  reduced  to  that  of  the  time  of  the  glaciers  them- 
selves. It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  if  so  much  oil, 
learning,  and  labor  have  been  spent  to  know  the  epoch 
of  northern  glaciation.^  In  spite,  however,  of  the  stu- 
pendous efforts  made  by  geology,  climatology,  and 
astronomy,  scientists  have  not  been  able  to  agree  on 
this  important  question,  and  their  theories  diverge  all 
the  way  from  three  million  five  hundred  thousand  to 
three  thousand  years !  "^  The  opinions  held  by  indi- 
vidual investigators  depend  entirely  on  the  point  of 
view  which  is  taken,  or  on  some  preconceived  notion 
which  has  been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  legitimate 
working  hypothesis.^  Our  rule  is  to  conditionally  ac- 
cept such  dates  as  the  learned  disagree  the  least  upon ; 
and,  according  to  this  rule,  we  admit  that  the  glacial 
epoch  still  enduring  in  the  far  North  has  set  in  no  later 
than  at  the  end  of  the  world's  tertiary  era,  *  and  that 
there  have  been  two,  if  not  more,  distinct  glacial  periods, 
as  seems  to  be  established  by  the  promising  geologist, 
Boule,  and  Professor  Newbery,  who  describes  a  forest 
bed  enclosed  between  two  moraines  or  glacial  deposits, 
in  which,  it  is  true,  no  human  vestiges  were  disco  ered, 
but  which  contains  a  large  number  of  remains  of  ani- 
mals known  to  have  been  man's  contemporaries,  and  of 
plants  whose  presence  establishes  the  possibility  of 
human  life  at  that  time." 

"-■  To  be  just,  however,  we  should  not  uphold  this  opin- 
ion as  a  demonstrated  fact,  because  many  scientists  dis- 


; 


*  Cf.  the  learned  Memoir  of 
Adrian  Arcelin,  in  Congrfis  Scient., 
viii.  sec.  p.  70,  ae^.,  and  the  one  of 
Rev.  J.  A.  Zahin,  in  the  Amer. 
Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p. 
678,  seq. 

*  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 


xviii.  p.  729 ;  the  Swiss  geologist 
Desor ;  and  Short,  p.  130. 

'  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.   Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p.  578. 

*  Congrfes  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  73. 

*  Nadaillac,    in   Congrfis   Scient. 
viii.  sec.  p.  129. 


ANTIQUITY   OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


37 


agree  with  it.  G.  Frederick  Wright,^  referring  to  the 
theory  of  a  succession  of  glacial  periods,  justly  main- 
tains that  local  glaciers  are  amply  sufficient  to  account 
for  all  the  facts  observed,  and  Le  Conte  concludes  a 
discussion  of  the  subject  with  the  statement  that  the 
evidence  at  present  is  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the 
uniqueness  of  the  glacial  period.^  Should  this  be  the 
case,  it  would  follow  that  the  man  of  Claymont  would 
be  rejuvenated  sufficiently  to  become  a  companion  of 
the  man  of  Trenton. 

We  have  no  doubt  but  the  reader  will  by  this  time 
have  become  as  tired  as  we  are  ourselves  of  general 
chronology,  and  require  us  to  put  down  mathematical 
figures  for  the  age  of  both  these  American  ances- 
tors. To  grant  this  legitimate  request  we  cannot  but 
relate  the  learned  conclusions  of  our  masters,  the 
scientists. 

Some  of  these  are  convinced  of  having  found  traces 
of  glaciers  in  the  most  ancient  geological  formations, 
and  agree,  no  doubt,  with  Mortillet,  who  attributes  from 
two  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  to  two  hundred  and 
forty  thousand  years  to  his  chellean  man.^  Mr.  Cres- 
son's  man  would  have  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Claymont  about  thirty  thousand  or  even  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  years  ago,*  and,  according  to  the 
school  of  Lyell,  Croll,  and  Geike,  man  may  have 
made  his  appearance,  if  perhaps  not  in  Claymont,  in 
other  parts  of  the  Old  or  of  the  New  World,  two  hun- 
dred thousand  years  ago,  if  not  earlier."  In  an  address 
made,  we  believe,  in  1872,  James  Geike,  the  eminent 
geologist,  takes  the  ground  that  man  is  pre-glacial  and 


*  Geology,  vol.  ii.  p.  427. 

'  Arner.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p.  581,  ref.  to  Le  Conte,  Ele- 
ments of  Geology,  p.  577. 


*  Congrte  Sclent.,   viii.   sec.   pp. 
72,  88. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  119. 

*  Amer.   Cath.  Quar.   Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p.  580. 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'I 


Ifi! 


!i 


inter-glacial.  Mr.  Croll,  he  says,  estimates  the  begin- 
ning of  the  glacial  period  at  two  hundred  and  forty 
thousand  years  past,  and  the  period  itself  as  having  had 
a  duration  of  one  thousand  six  hundred  centuries.  Mr. 
Evan  Hopkins  states  that  some  geologists  estimate  the 
glacial  period  to  have  been  in  progress  one  billion  two 
hundred  and  eighty  million  years.  If  this  is  a  fact, 
and  if  Mr.  Geike  is  correct  in  judging  man  to  he  pre- 
glacial,  then  man's  antiquity  is  great  indeed.^  Other 
scientists,  let  it  be  said  for  the  honor  of  science,  restrain 
their  imagination  within  more  reasonable  and  scientific 
bounds. 

As  to  the  probable  time  that  has  elapsed  since  the 
close  of  the  glacial  period,  the  tendency  of  recent  spec- 
ulation is  to  restrict  the  vast  extent  that  was  at  first 
suggested  for  it  to  a  space  of  from  twenty  thousand 
to  thirty  thousand  years.  The  most  conservative  view 
maintains  that  it  need  not  have  been  more  than  ten 
thousand  years,  or  even  less.^ 

The  great  difficulty  for  geologists  to  arrive  at  accord- 
ant conclusions  respecting  the  antiquity  of  the  Ameri- 
can man  arises  from  the  total  lack  of  a  reliable  chro- 
nometer. It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  great  lakes 
which  divide  our  country  from  the  British  Dominion 
were  formed  by  the  last  glacial  invasion,  and,  as  a  con- 
sequence, the  gorge  between  Niagara  Falls  and  Queens- 
town  is  considered  by  the  majority  of  geologists  as  the 
most  reliable  post-glacial  time-piece,  and  is  the  most 
frequently  appealed  to  as  the  foundation  of  their  chron- 
ological conclusions.  Assuming  that  the  entire  gorge 
from  Lake  Ontario  to  Niagara  has  been  eroded  by  the 
gradually  receding  cataract,  the  only  problem  is  to  de- 


»  Southall,  p.  47. 

»  Winsor,   vol.   i.   p.   333,  ref.  to 
"The   place   of   Niagara  Falls  in 


Geological  History,"  by  G.  K.  Gil- 
bert, in  Proc.  Amer.  Assoc,  p. 
223. 


')i 


ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


termine  the  amount  of  time  required  for  the  formation 
of  this  gorge,  and  to  estimate  the  number  of  years  that 
have  elapsed  since  the  close  of  the  ice  age  at  this 
point.  We  do  not  know  whether  geologists  have  taken 
into  sufficient  consideration  the  various  conditions  of 
hardness  and  solidity  of  the  rock  ^  which,  in  its  retro- 
gression, the  powerful  cataract  has  worn  and  beaten 
down,  but  we  know  that  the  results  of  their  learned  cal- 
culations are  far  from  agreeing.  We  shall  mention,  as 
a  freak  of  science,  the  statement  of  the  distinguished 
Swiss  geologist,  Desor,  who  asserts  the  Niagara  chro- 
nometer to  have  been  set  agoing  three  million  five 
hundred  thousand  years  ago. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  estimated  the  maximum  rate  of 
erosion  to  be  one  foot  per  annum,  and  fixed  the  be- 
ginning of  the  cataract  at  thirty-five  thousand  years 
past. 

The  English  geologist,  Bakewell,  together  with  other 
careful  observers,  calculated  the  rate  of  retrogression  to 
be  two  or  three  feet  a  year,  and  consequently  arrived  at 
from  twelve  thousand  to  eighteen  thousand  years  as  the 
age  of  the  post-glacial  era.'^ 

Mr.  Adrian  Arcelin,  making  due  allowance  of  time 
for  the  possible  interglacial  or  chellean  man,  who  lived 
in  company  with  extinct  elephants  before  the  Niagara 
cataract  was  formed,  generously  grants  him  an  antiquity 
of  fifteen  thousand  years.'^ 

After  more  careful  observation  of  the  erosion  of  the 
Niagara  escarpment  and  a  more  thorough  knowledge 
of  glacial  phenomena,  Mr.  W.  Upham  assigns  to  the 
post-glacial  era  a  maximum  space  of  ten  thousand 
years. 


'  Apparent    from    the     varying 
width  of  the  Niagara  River. 


'  Amer.   Cath.  Quar.   Rev.,  vol. 
xviii.  p.  729. 
'  Ck)ngrd8  Sclent.,  viii.  eec.  p.  88. 


40 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


Mr.  Emerson,  who  studied  the  secondary  natural 
chronometers  of  the  Bonneville  and  Lahontan-Lake 
shores,  arrives  at  the  same  conclusion,^  which  is  also 
sustained  by  G.  F.  Wright,  after  comparing  the  results 
of  senior  geologists*  calculations.** 

Prestwich,  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  English  geol- 
ogists, who  took  into  consideration  not  only  the  Niagara 
gorge  but  all  possible  geological  data,  limits  the  time  of 
the  post-glacial  period  or  of  the  melting  away  of  the 
ice-sheet  to  from  eight  thousand  to  ten  thousand  years 
or  less.' 

After  careful  comparison  between  the  water-falls  of 
Niagara  and  of  St.  Anthony,  the  Marquis  de  Nadaillac 
assigns  eight  thousand  years  to  man's  probable  exist- 
ence in  America. 

Professor  Winchell,  who  accepts  as  a  basis  for  his 
calculations  the  same  Mississippi,  St.  Anthony  Falls, 
does  not  reach  an  age  greater  than  seven  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  three  years.* 

Dr.  Andrews,  taking  into  consideration  the  erosion 
of  theshores  of  Lake  Michigan  and  its  bottom  deposits, 
reduces  the  former  figures  to  seven  thousand  five  hun- 
dred years  ;  and,  generally,  calculations  based  on  lakes 
and  so-called  kettle-holes  in  New  England  and  the 
Northwest  all  lead  to  identical  conclusions.* 

Messrs.  Woodward  and  Gilbert  calculate  the  Niagara 
Falls  erosion  at  five  feet  per  annum,  and  conclude  that 
it  has  taken  seven  thousand  years  at  most  to  dig  the 
channel  down  to  the  Ontario  lake.^ 


*  Congr^Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  130, 
ref.  to  American  Geologist  for  1890. 

*  Congr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p. 
88. 

*  Greology,  vol.  ii.  pp.  553,  554,  re- 
ferred to  by  Amer.  Cath.  Quar. 
Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  580. 


•  Ciongrfis  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp.  88, 
130. 

•  Ibid. ;  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev., 
vol.  xviii.  pp.  729,  730. 

•  Congris  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  88  ; 
Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii. 
p.  729. 


ANTIQUITY   OF   MAN   IN   AMERICA. 


Q 


In  beginning  this  review  of  dates  we  have  exposed 
some  difficulties  hardly  touched  by  geologists  in  de- 
fining the  age  of  the  post-glacial  Niagara  gorge,  and 
we  might  set  forth  more  grave  impediments  to  an  his- 
torical solution  of  the  Niagara  Falls  problem.  It  is 
not  certain,  indeed,  that  the  entire  gorge  is  the  result 
of  post-glacial  action.  On  the  contrary,  there  are 
many  able  glacialists  who  contend  that  a  portion  of 
the  ravine  was  eroded  before  the  disappearance  of  the 
last  glaciers,  and  that  we  have  as  yet  no  means  of  know- 
ing just  how  much  of  the  work  has  been  done  since  the 
torrent  began  to  pour  over  its  escarpment. 

The  numerous  foregoing  dates,  ranging  from  ten 
thousand  to  seven  thousand  years  or  less,  and  based 
by  the  latest  and  most  careful  geologists  upon  facts 
actually  observed,  are  far  from  excluding  all  doubt; 
but  their  strange  concordance  goes  far  to  disprove 
the  wild  schemes  of  physicists  who  reckon  the  first 
American's  age  by  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  years ;  it  singularly  promotes  the  opinion  that  the 
oldest  vestiges  of  man  discovered  upon  this  conti- 
nent are  of  relatively  recent  date,  and  do  not  exceed 
or  hardly  exceed  the  limits  of  time  apparently  set 
forth  by  the  oldest  of  human  records,  the  Holy  Bible, 
which,  in  fact,  stimulates  us  to  conjecture  that  man 
lived  in  America  earlier  than  is  supposed  by  some 
scientists. 

"I  admit  "with  Deluc,"  says  Saussure,*  "that  our 
globe,  in  its  present  form,  is  not  so  old  as  some  philoso- 
phers have  imagined."  "Another  truth,"  Dolomieu 
writes,  "  which  I  am  led  to  believe  at  every  step  into 
the  history  of  man  and  by  every  known  phenomenon 
of  nature,  is  that  our  continents,  in  their  actual  con- 


*  Voyage  dans  les  Alpee,  ^  625,  ap.  Hettinger,  Bd.  i.  8.  126. 


42 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'1  ' 


(lition,  are  not  very  old."'  Cuvier  is  more  definite  in 
stating^  tliat,  if  anything  is  demonstrated  in  geology, 
it  is  that  the  earth's  surface  vvjis  the  scene  of  a  sudden 
and  universal  cataclysm  which  cannot  date  back  more 
than  from  five  to  six  thousand  years. 

Fr.  Lenormant,  an  eminent  archeeologist  and  histo- 
rian, freely  recognizes  the  existence  of  man  even  in 
middle  tertiary  time  (!),  and  this,  not  of  an  unde- 
veloped savage,  but  of  a  being  as  exalted  as  Adam 
pictured  in  the  Bible.  Subsequent  savagism  was  the 
consequence  of  Adam's  sin,  which  called  down  the 
divine  curse ;  and  the  appearance  of  cold,  intense  and 
permanent,  which  man  was  scarcely  able  to  endure,  and 
which  rendered  a  great  part  of  the  earth  uninhabitable, 
was  one  among  the  chastisements  which  followed  the 
fault  of  our  first  parent."  Hellwald,  on  the  contrary, 
contends  that  man's  beginning,  as  far  as  scientific  re- 
searches have  established  until  this  day,  does  not  date 
back  but  a  few  thousands  of  years,  and  Caspari,  who  in 
other  places  advocates  a  hoary  antiquity  of  our  species, 
says  that  Hellwald  is  right.*  Professor  S.  Newcomb, 
basing  a  calculation  on  the  rate  of  radiation,  says,  "  The 
earth  has  probably  been  revolving  in  its  orbit  ten  mil- 
lions of  years ;  man  has  probably  existed  on  it  less  than 
ten  thousand  years."  ®  James  Southall,  another  recent 
scientist,  announces  in  the  preface  ^  of  his  book,  "  The 
Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  that  he  intends  to  prove  that 
primeval  man  commenced  his  career  six  or  eight  thou- 
sand years  ago  in  a  civilized  condition. 


*  Journal  de  Physique,  t.  i.  p.  42. 

'  Discours  sur  les  Revolutions 
du  Globe,  p.  352,  ap.  Hettinger, 
Bd.  i.  S.  126. 

'  Les  Premieres  Civilisations,  pp. 
11,  18,  49,  50,  53,  63,  ap  Winchell, 
p.  431. 


*  Kosmos,   iv.    80,    April,    1880, 
ap.  Winchell,  p.  500. 

*  Popular  Astronomy,  p.  519,  ap. 
Winchell,  p.  501. 

•P.  11. 


ANTKiUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


43 


It  is  said  well  that  "  God  hath  made  all  things  good 
in  their  time,  and  hath  delivered  the  world  to  their  [of 
men  of  science]  consideration  [disputaimii  eortim],  so 
that  man  cannot  find  out  the  work  which  God  hath 
made  from  the  beginning  to  the  end." '  We  have  seen 
how  scientists  have  been  and  are  yet  engaged  by  the 
jmzzle  which  the  Creator  proposed  to  them,  how  they 
discuss  and  quarrel  among  themselves,  bitterly  com- 
plaining of  the  present  '^ondition  of  science  and  con- 
cluding with  the  despairiiij^  ivowal  of  their  ignorance. 
No  authentic  traces  of  man's  existence,  before  or  during 
the  glacial  period,  can  be  found  on  the  Western  Conti- 
nent, says  Arcelin  with  Nadaillac."^  The  latter  adds: 
**  We  know  absolutely  nothing  in  regard  to  the  origin 
of  the  men  that  first  trod  the  soil  of  America,  and  we 
must  confess  our  entire  ignorance ;  we  meet  with  un- 
certainties on  every  side.' 

If  the  learned  thus  acknowledge  their  inability  to 
steer  our  exploration  bark  in  the  midst  of  the  treacher- 
ous waves  of  their  conflicting  chronological  figures, 
would  it  not  be  prudence  for  us  to  seek  safety,  if  not 
rest,  in  the  harbor  opened  to  us  by  that  venerable  book 
which,  although  never  intended  as  a  text-book  of  chro- 
nology or  of  any  science  at  all,  is  replete  with  scientific 
teachings  appreciated  too  little  ?  We  do  not  propose 
to  say  that  Holy  Scripture  will  define  the  vexed  ques- 
tion of  the  antiquity  of  man  in  America,  but  we  say 
that  modern  science  has  not  as  yet  succeeded  in  estab- 
lishing any  chronological  error  in  duly  interpreted  Bible 
records,  and  this  for  two  good  reasons :  because  the 
more  recent  and  sounder  portion  of  modern  scientisiS 
are  coming  to  conclusions  which  perfectly  agree  with 


'  Eccles.  iii.  11. 

*  ConsrrAs  Sci>int. ,   viii.   sec.   pp. 
82..  I'M. 


«  Ibid.,  pp.  129,  131. 


44 


HISTORY   OP   AMERICA.   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


IV 


Bible  chronology  as  understood  long  since ;  and  again, 
because  the  Church,  the  only  authorized  interpreter  of 
Holy  Writ  as  an  inspired  book,  has  neither  decidt  d 
which  of  the  conflicting  versions  of  Bible  chronology 
is  the  correct  one,  nor  interpreted  the  meaning  of  this 
true  version.  Tlo  three  most  ancient  texts  of  the 
Pentateuch — the  ebrew,  the  Samaritan,  and  the  Sep- 
tuagint — vary  considerably  in  their  statements  as  to 
the  ages  of  many  of  the  patriarchs  at  the  birth  of  their 
sons.  So  wide  is  the  difference  between  the  Hebrew 
and  the  Septuagint  versions,  that  their  chronologies 
cannot  be  reconciled  at  all,  the  latter  allowing  thir- 
teen centuries  and  a  half  more  than  the  former  from 
Adam  to  the  call  of  Abraham. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  genealogical  tables  of  but  one 
of  the  three  texts  can  be  correct,  and  the  other-  two 
must  needs  be  erroneous.  Which  one  is  right  and 
which  are  wrong  will  most  likely  ever  remain  a  matter 
of  dispute,  because  we  have  not  any  intrinsic  reason  for 
preferring  any  one  of  them  to  the  otbors. 

These  three  texts,  their  most  respectable  transcripts, 
and  the  computations  of  their  most  competent  inter- 
preters have  afforded  us  a  series  of  figures  to  represent 
the  age  of  mankind  at  the  beginning  of  our  era,  so 
diversified  and  so  atterly  discrepant  as  to  make  every 
subsequent  student  despair  of  ever  obtaining  any  reli- 
able information  from  Holy  Scripture  towards  the 
solution  of  this  question,  which  divides  the  men  of 
science  more  widely  still  and  exacts  from  them  the 
confession  of  their  invincible  ignorance. 

Hales  has  tabulated  not  less  than  one  hundred  and 
twenty  estimates  of  the  antiquity  of  man  founded  on  dif- 
ferent manuscripts  and  versions  of  the  Hebrew  text  only.^ 


if 


*  Analysis  of  Chronology,  2d  ed.,  vol.  i.  p.  212,  ap.  Winchell,  p.  99. 


^!     i 


ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA.  45 

We  here  append  a  short  extract  from  the  most  au- 
thorized opinions  regarding  the  epoch  of  Adam's  crea- 
tion, all  of  them  derived  from  Holy  Scripture : 

According  to —  Years  B.C. 

Common  Jewish  computation 3,761 

Hebrew  text 3,834 

Scaliger 3,950 

P^tau 3,983 

Usher,  Calmot,  and  popuhir  opinion 4,004 

Labbe 4,053 

Other  Hebrew  Codex 4,161 

Samaritan  text 4,306 

Samaritan  computation 4,427 

Origen 4,830 

"  Art  of  verifying  Dates" 4,963 

Roman  Martyrology,  Eusebius  of  Ctesarea,  Beda  5,199 

St.  Julian  and  the  Septuagint 6,205 

Septuagint,  Vatican  Codex 5,270 

Some  Tahnudists 5,344 

Pandoras,  a  learned  Egyptian  monk 5,493 

Nicephorus  of  Constantinople 5,500 

Septuagint,  Alexandrian  Codex 5,508 

Septuagint,  Constantinopolitan  Codex 6,510 

Vossius 5,590 

St.  Clement  of  Alexandria 5,624 

Suidas 6,000 

Panvinius 6,311 

"  Alphonsine  Tables" 6,984 

J.  A.  Zahm 10,000 

T.  P.  Crawford 12,500 

Other  Christian  authors  give  still  higher  figures.^ 
If  we  compare  these  figures  with  those  of  modern 
scientists  regarding  the  primeval  American  man,  we 
shall  see  at  a  glance  that  they  either  fall  but  little  short, 
or  singularly  agree  with  them.  But  should,  in  the 
second    place,   difficulties    be   raised   from   the   much 

'  Cf.  W.  Gleeeon,  vol.  i.  p.  170,     n.  1 ;  Winchell,  p.  99 ;  Hettinger, 

Bd.  ii.  S.  284,  seq. 


T^ 


46 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


higher  dates  proposed  by  other  geologists  and  archae- 
ologists, we  might,  after  taking  legitimate  exceptions, 
reply  that  the  pretended  divergence  between  science 
and  religion  is  simply  caused  by  inadequate  knowledge 
of  the  Holy  Bible  records.  We  perfectly  agree  with 
Mr.  Short  ^  when  he  says,  "  It  is  evident  that  Arch- 
bishop Usher's  rules  of  interpretation  applied  to  the 
tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  according  to  which  the  names 
of  the  descendants  of  Noe's  sons  are  taken  to  represent 
individuals  only,  cannot  hold."  The  probabilities  are 
that  these  names  represent  considerable  tribes  or  na- 
tions. The  fourth  verse  already  confirms  the  opinion 
that  several  generations,  whole  nations,  are  set  forth  in 
one  name,  thus  the  Cetthm  and  the  Dodanm,  in  their 
pleural  Hebrew  form ;  all  the  more,  as  verse  5  adds, 
"  By  these  were  divided  the  islands  of  the  Gentiles  in 
their  lands ;  every  one  according  to  his  tongue,  and  their 
families  in  their  nations."  Verse  15  of  the  same 
chapter  seems  to  mention  both  individuals  and  nations, 
single  and  successive  generations :  "  And  Chanaan  begot 
Sidon  his  first-born,  the  Hethite."^  The  following 
verses  clearly  designate,  not  individuals,  but  well- 
known  tribes  or  nations ;  thus  verse  16  :  "  And  the  Jebu- 
site  and  the  Amorrhite  and  tlie  Gergesite."  ^  Verses  17 
and  18  continue  in  the  same  manner.*  Short"  correctly 
adds  :  "  The  Scripture  account  makes  no  pretensions  at 
chronology  or  at  furnishing  data  for  any  system,  and 
the  constructions  put  upon  its  condensed  account  of 
the  origin  and  growth  of  nations  during  an  indefinite 
lapse  of  time  by  short-sighted  interpreters  are  unwar- 
ranted, and  certainly  do  injustice  to  the  oldest  of  our 


» P.  199. 

*  Hethseuin,      Allioli 
also,  "dieHethiter." 


'Allioli:    "und    Jebusiter 
tranelates     Amorrhiter,"  etc. 

♦  Cf.  Winchell,  p.  11. 
»  P.  199. 


und 


ANTIQUITY    OF    MAN    IN    AMERICA. 


47 


histories."  One  more  remark  may  suffice  here, — 
namely,  that  Hoi}'  Scripture  does  not  scruple  to  pass  in 
silence  several  generations  in  drawing  up  its  genealogies, 
as  appears  from  the  one  which,  it  seems,  should  have 
been  made  with  the  greatest  accuracy,  the  genealogy  of 
Christ  himself.  From  all  of  which  it  is  manifest  and 
obvious  that  it  is  out  of  place  for  archaeologists  and 
geologists  to  pick  up  a  quarrel  on  chronology  with  an 
historical  record  that  may  correct  their  extravagances 
without  pretending  as  much  as  to  enlighten  them. 


i  ,i 


III.^, 


CHAPTEK   III. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 

We  have  already  met  with  a  few  signs  of  the  fact  that 
primeval  man  lived  on  the  American  continent  in  reg- 
ular company  of  fellow-beings  in  constituted  society. 
But  it  is  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible,  for  even  the 
most  learned  and  careful  researcher  to  determine  which 
were  the  first  nations  that  inhabited  our  hemisphere. 
Geology  and  archaeology  clearly  demonstrate  that  vari- 
ous peoples  succeeded  one  another  in  America,  nay,  in 
our  United  States.  Henry  W.  Haynes  concludes  his 
learned  chapter  in  Winsor's  "  Naxr^itive  and  Critical 
History  , of  America"  ^  by  expressing  his  belief  that  the 
"BO^'alled  Indians  of  our  day,  with  their  many  divisions 
into  numerous  linguistic  families,  were  later  comers  to. 
our  shores  tha£i_  the  j)nndtiye_£0|iuk  ;  but  it  is  not 
""BqnatlylBvidint  whence  they  came,  where  they  settled, 
when  or  in  what  order  they  appeared  and  disappeared 
again. 

Opmer  and  others,  founding  their  opinion  on  Plato's 
description  of  Atlantis,  think  that  America  was  inhab- 
ited before  the  biblical  deluge ;  that,  if  Adam  was  not 
created  here,  Noe  at  least  was  a  native  American,  and 
that  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that,  after  the  flood, 
people  returned,  than  came,  to  our  shores.^ 

The  races,  however,  that  lived  either  before  or  im- 
mediately after  the  deluge  have  left  but  the  faintest 
vestiges  of  their  passage.     One  of  them,  noticed  by  the 


I 


»  Vol.  i.  ch.  vi.  p.  367. 
48 


*  HomiuB,  lib.  i.  cap.  iii.  p.  21. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


49 


learned,  is  called  the  Dolichocephaious  Race^becg 
few  discovered  crania  show  the  antefo-posterior  longer 
than  the  transverse  diameter  of  the  skull.  These  re- 
mains were,  so  far,  found  mainly  in  the  valley  of  Cala- 
basso,  Chili,  near  the  Lagoa  do  Sumidouro,  Brazil,  and 
in  La  Plata.^ 

The  tribes  of  the  Amazon  region,  wherever  they 
originated,  certainly  came  up  from  the  South  into  the 
lands  they  now  occupy.  However  diverse  now,  they 
are  all  supposed  to  be  descen^d_froiri.tlL£. long-headed 
Tupis_and  Guaranis,  having  displaced  an  earlier  and 
short-headed  race^whose~sKiIIs  are  founil  lii  the  shell- 


heaps  of  the  coast. 

Their  associated  fossils  are  proof  sufficient  that  the 
race  was  contemporaneous  with  animals  long  since  ex- 
tinct, and  lived,  according  to  the  discoveries  of  Mr. 
Ameghino,^  in  dug-outs,  covered  in  some  instances  with 
the  glyptodon's  scaly  frame.  Ameghino's  reports 
should  further  lead  us  to  admit  that  the  dolichoceph- 
aious were  a  post-diluvian  people,  feeding  on  animals,* 
with  which  they  carried  on  both  defensive  and  offen- 
sive war,  armed  with  weapons  of  flint  shaped  and 
sharpened  by  percussion.  Few  of  the  teeth  which  they 
left  for  the  inspection  of  modern  scientists  were  affected 
with  caries,  but  they  show  evident  signs  of  hard  use, 
and  the  incisors  are  often  worn  to  the  roots.*     Were 


*  From  «6Aixo5,  long,  elongated, 
and  ite</>aA^,  head. 

•  It  is  well  established  that  in 
America  we  find  extreme  brachy- 
cephaly  (from  Ppax"*,  short,  and 
«<froA^,  head;  i.e.,  the  antero-pos- 
terior  diameter  of  the  skull  shorter 
than  the  transverse)  as  well  among 
the  prehistoric  as  among  the  his- 
toric peoples  from  British  America 
to  Patagonia.  At  the  same  time, 
dolichocephaly  is  found  among  the 

I.— 4 


Esouimaux  and  throughout  the 
American  Indian  tribes  from  North 
to  South.  (Dr.  H.  Ten  Kate,  in 
Science,  vol.  xii.  p.  228,  November, 
1888.) 

'  La  Antiguedad  del  Hombre  en 
la  Plata,  referred  to  by  Congrfis 
Scient.  des  Cathol.,  Paris,  1891, 
viii.  sec.  p.  128. 

*  Gen.  ix.  2,  3. 

*  Nadaillac,  in  Congrtia  Sclent., 
viii.  Bee.  pp.  127,  128. 


dO 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


\l 

1  f 

>,' 

they  perhaps  one  of  the  long-lived  biblical  nations,  as 
we  shall  find  it  stated  by  some  of  tiiL  most  ancient 
European  writers  ?  Nftt^oflly  the  Brazilian  Botocudos, 
butT^cording  to  l)r.  P.  Jousset,  the  Patagonians,  also, 
and  the  Esquimaux  are  still  perpetuating  this  prime- 
val race.  Jousset  further  gratuitously  pretends  that 
they  were  of  a  yellow  color,  that  during  their  migra- 
tions from  Asia  they  had  lost  the  fundamental  ele- 
ments of  civilization,  and  that  they  had  no  permanent 
domiciles.  These  statements  are  more  or  less  in 
accord  with  our  theory  of  progress,  but,  for  all  we 
know,  they  rest  on  no  positive  facts.^  The  bones  attest 
that  their  owners  were  human  beings,  but  whether 
they  were  highly  civilized  or  reduced  to  the  lowest 
grade  of  savagism  no  witnesses  have  yet  appeared 
to  testify,  neither  have  they  left  any  vestiges  from 
which  we  may  conclude  either  that  they  followed 
the  dictates  of  piimeyal- revelation  or  had  fallen 
to  the  worship  of  idols,  or,  lower  yet,  to  religious 
destitution. 

Numerous,  extensive,  and  most  interesting  re.  ains 
have  revealed  to  the  learned  the  passage  of  another 
race  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Western  Con- 
tinent, called  the  race  of  the  Kitchen  Middings,  from 
the  large  mounds  of  collected  shells,  bones,  and  other 
kitchen  offal  which  they  have  left  behind  them.  These 
shell-heaps  are  from  three  to  thirty  feet  high ;  some 
cover  quite  extensive  areas,  and  are  to  be  found  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  from  Nova  Scotia  down  to  Florida 
and  even  into  Brazil.  A  mound  of  kitchen-middens 
has  been  discovered  in  this  last  country,  on  the  banks  of 
the  Saguassu  River,  others  on  the  coast  of  the  Mexican 
Gulf,  up  the  river  valleys  through  nearly  all  our  South- 

*  Congrte  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp.  108,  109. 


i 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


51 


ern  States,'  and  along  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
all  the  way  from  Alaska  to  Central  America.* 

The  vast  extent  of  country — nearly  all  America — 
where  these  heaps  are  to  be  found  affords  abundant 
evid'^nce  of  the  spread  of  this  nation,  and  the  huge 
mai  of  accumulated  shells  and  similar  remains 
prove,  like  Monte  Testaccio  of  the  Romans,  that  they 
were  large  in  numbers,  sedentary  in  habits,  and  that 
they  endured  for  many  centuries. 

Winchell  says,^  "  From  the  testimony  of  shell- 
heaps  it  appears  that  the  Aleutian  Islands  have  been 
occupied  by  tribes  of  Orarian  or  sea-coast-people  type, 
from  an  epoch  so  remote  that  their  populations  were 
without  houses,  clothin^^^,  fire,  lamps,  ornaments,  weapons 
(unless  of  the  most  primitive  kind) ,  implements  of  the 
chase,  for  fishing,  or  ev jn  for  cooking  what  they  might 
have  found  upon  the  shore."  Professor  Dall  concludes 
that  the  lower  layer  in  the  shell-mounds  of  the  Aleu- 
tian Islands  required  one  thousand  years  for  its  accu- 
mulation, and  the  overlying  "fish-layer"  and  "  hunting- 
layer,"  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  years.  He 
thinks  three  thousand  years  are  not  too  high  an  estimate 
for  the  duration  of  occupation  of  these  islands  by  the 
Kitchen  Middinsjs.* 

With  refa  i  ;Cv  ',o  the  age  of  the  shell-heaps,  Wyman 
states  thatth- 1;.  i-  le  seen  near  Silver  Spring,  where 
a  heap  is  re)^    '  w  ■-     over  nearly  twenty  a^'jres,  a  grove 


'  Many  shell-mounds  in  our 
Southern  States  are  burial-mounds, 
while  vast  numbers  are  little  more 
than  refuse-heaps.  They  contain 
pottery,  stone  axes,  flint  knives, 
etc.  There  is  a  remarkable  tumu- 
lus of  these  shells  on  Stsvlling's 
Island,  two  hundred  miles  from 
the  mouth  of  the  Savannah  River. 
Its  diameter  is  three  hundred  feet, 


and  its  height  fifteen  feet.  It  is  a 
huge  necroixilis.  (Southall,  pp. 
189,  190.) 

'Short,  p.  106;  Nadaillac,  Pre- 
historic America,  p.  53  ;  Cronau,  S. 
25  ;  Winchell,  p.  325. 

'  P.  325,  referring  to  Dall,  in  Pow^- 
ell's  Contributions,  vol.  i.  p.  66. 

« Winchell,  p.  325,  n. 


62 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


of  live  oaks,  measuring  from  thirteen  to  twenty-seven 
feet  in  circumference,  on  its  slope  farthest  from  the 
water.  Excavations  made  beneath  the  largest  of  them 
showed  that  the  tree  was  more  recent  than  the  shell- 
mound  itself  If  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  cen- 
tury of  the  life  of  the  live  oak  there  are  twelve  rings 
at  least  to  the  inch,  then  the  tree  had  an  age  of  not 
less  than  six  hundred  years,  and  was  near  the  second 
century  of  its  existence  at  the  time  of  the  landing  of 
Columbus.  These  estimates,  though  approximative 
only,  carry  back  the  origin  of  the  mounds  beyond  the 
reach  of  history  or  tradition,  and  certainly  one  or 
two  centuries  before  the  last  discovery  of  America. 
These  shell-heaps  cannot  be  more  recent  than  the  trees 
growing  upon  them,  and  were  necessarily  abandoned 
long  before  the  surviving  giants  commenced  to  live, 
for  who  shall  tell  how  many  years  or  centuries  it  took 
before  the  first  acorn  reached  the  spot  and  found  suf- 
ficient soil  gathered  over  the  shells  to  germinate  and 
grow  ?  ^ 

It  is  impossible,  indeed,  to  determine  the  time  of  the 
existence  of  this  race,  although  we  can  say  that  they 
are  of  a  relatively  late  period,  because  the  numerous 
researches  made  among  their  kitchen-middens  have  not 
brought  to  light  any  remnant  of  the  gigantic  extinct 
American  fauna,  while  the  fossils  evince  the  fact  that 
the  animals  at  their  time  were  the  same  as  inhabit  our 
hemisphere  yet,  with  the  exception  of  a  larger  deer  and 
a  canine  that  have  left  their  bones  among  the  debris.^ 
We  shall  soon  observe  that  the  colonies  of  this  race 
on_the_ScandiDavian  coasts  lasted  much  longer  than  the 
American  parent  stock. 

'  Cf.  Foster,  Prehistoric  Races  of         '  Short,  p.  106  ;  CongrSs  Scient., 
the  United  States  of  America,  p.     viii.  seep.  109. 
168. 


)1 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONH. 


58 


The  shell-heaps  give  unmistakable  evidence  of  the 
nature  of  theLitr  peoples'  food.  On  both  sea-shores  and 
river-banks  they  fed  almost  exclusively  on  oysters  and 
other  shell-fish,  and  on  aquatic  animals  generally  ;  far- 
ther up  the  rivers  the  remains  of  fish  are  intermixed 
with  the  bones  of  mammals,  and  some  stone  mortars 
found  in  the  shell-heaps,  principally  in  California, 
would  allow  us  to  conjecture  that  cereals  formed  a  part 
of  their  diet.^  We  would  gladly  stop  here  our  remarks 
on  their  food,  but  the  fossil  remnants  of  their  aliments 
establish  a  fact  disparaging  for  ancient  humanity,  and 
prove  that  this  was  not  only  a  late  but  a  degraded 
nation  also.  From  a  heap  on  the  banks  of  the  Sa- 
guassu  River  numerous  human  relics  have  been  taken, 
the  fractures  in  the  bones  showing  clearly  that  they 
had  been  broken  to  get  out  the  marrow.^  Nadaillac 
states  that  the  same  saddening  evidences  were  produced 
by  the  shell-mounds  of  Florida  and  Nev7  England,' 
and  Cronau  confirms  this  statement.*  Short  and  Jous- 
set  do  not  doubt  that  the  Kitchen-midding  race  was 
addicted  to  cannibalism,  and  Dr.  Wyman  has  deposited 
in  the  Peabody  Museum  a  collection  of  human  bones 
taken  from  the  shell-banks,  so  arranged  as  to  confirm 
and  illustrate  the  assertions  of  other  fossilists.® 

This  abomination,  which  prevailed  yet  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  sixteenth  century  nearly  all  over 
America,  from  the  Algonquins  to  the  Fuegians,  may 
perhaps  serve  as  a  clue  in  our  search  after  the  origin 
of  this  fallen  people,  while  Herodotus  tells  us  that 
several  countries  in  the  neTgTiborhopd  of  Scy thia  were 
infected  with  thesame  vice."     We  may  well,  therefore, 


^  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  109  ; 
Aa.  passim. 

'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  53. 

'  Prehistoric  America,  pp.  58,  59. 


*  Amerika,  S.  28. 

"  Short,  p.  108  ;  Jousset,  Congrfis 
Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  109. 

« Histories,  b.  iv.  ch.  18,  26, 
etc. 


■Kv> 


54 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


il 


Ml 


i.\ 


/'^ 


if  not  give  an  affirmatory  answer,  at  least  put  the  ques- 
tion whether  this  prehistoric  nation  was,  like  the  later 
American  Indians,  of  Asiatic,  Scythian,  or  Tartar 
ancestry,  and  had,  from  the  Ural-Altaic  Mountains, 
continued  to  move  in  an  easterly  direction  to  both 
shores  of  the  Pacific  and  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

That  the  Kitchen  Middings  were  of  Asiatic  origin 
can  hardly  be  doubted  by  one  who  observes  that  their 
monuments  are  to  be  found  at  both  the  abutments  of 
the  gigantic  natural  bridge  which  spans  the  northern 
Pacific  Ocean  from  Alaska  to  Japan,  with  the  Kurile, 
the  Commander's,  and  the  Aleutian  archipelagos  as  its 
piers.  Several  shell-heaps  are,  indeed,  to  be  seen  near 
Tokio  in  Omori,  Japan,  which  are  of  great  antiquity. 
F.  V.  Dickine^  and  J.  Milne '^  confidently  assert  that 
these  shell-heaps  and  the  pottery  found  in  them  are  of 
Aino  origin, — that  is,  made  by  one  of  the  most  ancient 
Mongoloid  families  that  resided  in  the  east  of  Niphon 
down  to  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  century  and  has  a 
few  survivors  still  on  the  island  Yeso.  But  Professor 
E.  S.  Morse  thinks  he  finds  in  some  shell-heaps  near 
Tokio  pottery  which  was  not  made  by  Ainos,  and  he 
regards  it  as  evidence  of  a  race  even  older  than  the 
Ainos.^  On  the  Pacific  coast,  near  San  Francisco, 
there  is  a  shell-mound  almost  a  mile  long  and  a  mile 
wide,  where  a  few  years  ago,  at  a  depth  of  twenty  feet, 
numerous  human  skeletons  were  found.  One  baby  had 
been  rolled  in  a  long  piece  of  red  silk.  This  piece  of  red 
silk,  Southall  remarks^  proves  communication  with  Asia. 


>  Nature,  xxi.  350,  610. 

*  Transact.  Asiatic  Soc.  of  Japan, 
February,  1880. 

•  "Traces  of  Early  Man  in  Ja- 
pan," Popular  Science  Monthly, 
January,  1879,  p.  257 ;  Memoir  of 
the  Science   Department,  Univer- 


sity of  Tokio,  Japan,  vol.  i.  pt.  i.  : 
"  Shell-mounds  of  Omori ;"  Nature, 
xxi.  p.  501  ;  American  Naturalist, 
xiv.  p.  6.56,  ap.  Winchell,  p.  143, 
n.  1,  p.  483. 
*  P.  550,  n.  vf 


I 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


d6 


This  same  race  had  also  fixed  their  dwellings 
along  the  western  coast  of  northern  Europe,  and  espe- 
cially in  Denmark,  where  several  of  the  character- 
iat:c_pileg  of  kitchen-iniflfjpr'a,  tli|f>rfi  called  "  Kjykken- 


m('ddinger,"  have  been  discovered,  perfectly  similar  to 
those  of  our  continent.  Likely  some  of  those  people 
migrated  across  the  northern  Atlantic,  either  because  of 
their  crowding  numbers  at  home,  or  as  a  consequence 
of  unsuccessful  wars  with  new-comers  from  Asia,  and 
thus  became  the  first  American  discoverers  of  Europe 
long  centuries  before  Columbus  got  sight  of  the  west- 
ern hemisphere.  The  Danish  shell-heaps  are  evidently 
of  a  much  later  formation  than  those  of  America  and  of 
Asia,  containing,  as  they  do,  articles  of  bronze  and  iron, 
some  of  which  are  undoubtedly  of  the  Roman  period^-.-— --"^ 

This  race  was  not,  even  in  America,  deprived  of  a 
certain  degree  of  civilization,  as  appears  from  the  relics 
they  left  us.  Among  these  we  find  stone  implements, 
shaped  with  greater  art  and  care  than  during  a  pre- 
ceding period,  needles  and  bodkins  finely  made  of 
bone,  stone  mortars,  and  other  objects  which  display 
workmanship  of  the  most  remarkable  perfection.* 
Debris  of  earthenware,  some  of  rude  handiwork,  others 
of  superior  execution,  represent  the  form  of  animals 
with  considerable  accuracy.^ 

Of  their  religious  tenets  but  few  and  dubious  ves- 
tiges remain.  Did  they  believe  in  the  immortality  of 
the  soul  ?  This  question,  it  seems,  should  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  for  we  know  that  they  carefully 
buried  their,  dead ;  and  by  the  side  of  the  skeletons  we 
find  also  bones  of  fish  and  game  that  bear  evident  signs 


!', 


»  Short  p.  106 ;  Cronau,  S.  25 ; 
Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  109; 
Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii. 
p.  726. 


«  De  Quatrefages,  p.  132. 
'  Jousset,  in  Congrfis  Scient.,  viii. 
Bee.  p.  109  ;  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  391. 


66 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


of  the  action  of  fire.  Beyond  a  doubt,  says  Cronau, 
are  these  bones  the  remains  of  food  that  was  given  along 
for  the  deceased  on  their  journey  to  the  other  world  ;  and 
for  the  same  j)urpose  were  j)robably  intended  the  small 
piles  of  still  closed  oysters  and  of  other  shell-fish  which 
Dr.  Roth  invariably  discovered  next  to  the  remains  of 
the  Kitclien  Middings,  who  lie  buried  among  their 
shells  and  in  the  oblivion  of  their  successors.^ 

Their  memory  is  not,  howe'-er,  altogether  effaced 
from  the  traditions  of  some  of  our  modern  Indians. 
H.  H.  Bancroft  relates  ^  that  the  coast  people  of  north- 
ern California  have  a  story  about  the  mysterious  people 
called  Hohgates,  to  whom  is  ascribed  an  immense  bed 
of  mussel-shells  and  bones  of  animals  still  existing  on 
the  table-land  of  Point  St.  George,  near  Crescent  City. 
These  Hohgates,  seven  in  number,  are  said  to  have 
come  to  the  place  in  a  boat,  to  have  built  themselves 
hou:  Co  above-ground  after  the  style  of  white  men  ;  all 
this  about  the  time  1  hat  the  first  natives  came  down  the 
coast  from  the  North.  These  Hohgates  killed  many 
elks  on  land  and  many  seals  and  sea-lions  in  fishing 
excursions  from  their  boats.  They  also  sailed  fre- 
quently to  certain  rocks  and  loaded  their  little  vessels 
with  mussels.  By  all  this  they  secured  plenty  of  food, 
and  the  refuse  of  it,  the  bones  and  shells,  rapidly  accu- 
mulated into  the  great  piles  of  kitchen-middens  still  to 
be  seen.  One  day,  however,  all  the  Hohgates  being 
out  at  sea  in  their  boat,  they  struck  a  huge  sea-lion 
with  their  harpoon,  and,  unable  or  unwilling  to  cut  or 
throw  off  their  line,  were  dragged  with  fearful  speed 
towards  a  great  whirlpool  that  lay  far  towards  the 
Northwest.  It  is  the  place  where  souls  go,  where,  in 
darkness  and  cold,  the  spirits  shiver  forever,  while  living 


1  Cronau,  S.  27. 


»  Vol.  iii.  p.  177. 


PRE-CHRIHTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


67 


men  suffer  even  from  its  winds.  And  just  as  the  boat 
reached  the  edge  of  this  fearful  place,  behokl  a  marvel- 
lous thing  :  the  rope  broke  and  the  sea-monster  was 
swept  down  alone  into  the  whirl  of  wind  and  water,  but 
the  Hohgates  were  caught  up  into  the  air ;  swinging 
round  and  round,  their  boat  floated  steadily  up  into  the 
vast  of  heaven.  Nevermore  on  earth  were  the  Hohgates 
seen,  but  there  are  seven  stars  in  the  sky  thatall  men  know 
of,  and  these  stars  are  the  seven  Hohgates,  who  once 
lived  where  the  great  shell-bed  near  Crescent  City  is  now. 

These  relatively  clear  traditions  of  Indians,  who 
recounted  them  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  century,  should 
allow  us  to  doubt  whether  the  learned  follow  the  actual 
succession  of  events  in  placing  the  Kitchen-midding 
race  in  the  order  of  antiquity  which  they  generally 
assign  them  under  the  inaccurate  rule  of  ever  progress- 
ing civilization.  Yet  neither  shall  we  introduce  a 
novel  order  of  succession,  although,  perhaps,  more  his- 
torical, among  the  American  prehistoric  races. 

A  nation  but  seldom  spoken  of,  and  that  seems  to  be 
next  in  order,  if  we  consider  its  remaining  vestiges  of 
culture,  is  that  of  the  Cave  Dwellers  or  Troglodytes,  of 
whom  we  shall  give  an  idea  by  briefly  stating  the  dis- 
coveries made  in  two  caves  of  tr.eye  United  States/ 
quite  distant  from  each  other,  the  former  of  which  is 
known  as  ^alt^Cave,  Kentucky.  In  one  little  dwelling- 
place,  at  about  three  iniles  from  the  entrance  of  this  cave, 
the  learned  Putnam  made  out  the  footprints  of  a  man 
shod  with  sandals,  and  a  little  farther  he  found  the 
sandals  themselves,  made  with  great  skill  of  interwoven 
reeds.     The  garments  of  the  Cave-men  were  woven  of 


•  Other  interesting  cave-dwell- 
ings are  the  Lookout  and  Nicka- 
jack  Caves  in  Tennessee,  Hart- 
man's  Cave  in  Pennsylvania, 
Thompson's    Shelter    in    Virginia, 


Cave-in-Rock  in  Indiana,  Lake's 
Cave  in  Kentucky,  Minaa-Geraes 
in  Brazil,  and  several  caves  in 
Central  Yucatan.     (Mercer,  p.  13.) 


'J' 


tw 


I?: 


\\ 


f  ; 


if^ 


i    ' 


58 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


the  bark  of  young  trees.  Some  black  stripes  placed 
on  a  piece  of  cloth  so  prepared  and  fragments  of  fringe, 
also  found  in  the  cave,  bore  testimony  to  their  taste  for 
dress.  Another  piece  of  stuff,  curiously  mended,  gave 
proof  of  their  industry  and  economy.  Kemains  were 
also  picked  up  of  gourds,  often  of  considerable  size, 
and  two  finely  worked  arrow-points.  The  discovery  of 
sandals,  woven  stuffs,  and  gourds,  the  absence  of  bones 
of  animals,  and  the  apparently  long  habitation  of  the 
cave  suggest  a  sedentary  population  devoted  to  agricul- 
ture and  no  longer  depending  for  food  upon  hunting 
and  fishing. 

A  mummy  was  discovered  in  1813  in  the  other  cave. 
Short's  Cave,  and  a  careful  comparison  between  the 
clothes  it  wore  and  the  remains  found  in  Salt  Cave 
allow  us  to  class  them  as  identical  in  character.  Here, 
then,  we  have  the  relics  of  a  people  whose  habitat 
extended  over  a  large  area,  and  whose  great  care  in 
burying  the  dead  affords  eviJence  of  their  having  pre- 
served several  important  tenets  of  primordial  revela- 
tion. We  n  y  conjecture  that  they  were  good  moral 
Christians,  in  le  broad  sense  of  the  word,  of  course. 
Putnam  adds  wiiat  these  Cave-men  presented  every 
appearance  of  a  culture  very  much  superior  to  that  of 
the  savages  of  whom  the  shell-heaps  are  witnesses ;  but 
_____^e  allow  ourselves  to  call  in  question  his  opinion, — 
namely,  that  they  probably  date  from  a  less  remote 
antiquity.  The  remarks  we  made  before  and  his  own 
statement — to  wit,  that  certain  details  of  the  burial  point 
to  great  antiquity  of  the  mummy  found  in  Short's  Cave 
— are  reasons  why  we  should  rather  differ  with  him.^ 

We  ought  to   notice   that   Justin  Winsor  ^  assigns, 
however,  to  the  American  Cave  Dwellers  the  chrono- 


'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  75. 


*  Vol.  i.  p.  390. 


I 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


59 


logical  place  which  seems  rightfully  to  be  theirs,  by 
mentioning  them  before  speaking  of  the  Kitchen  Mid- 
dings.  He  also  states  that  Dr.  Lund,  a  Danish  natural- 
ist, examined  several  hundred  Brazilian  caves,  finding 
in  them  the  bones  of  man  in  connection  with  those  of 
extinct  animals-^.,. 

Nor  would  it  be  out  of  place  to  ask  whether  the  Cave 
Dwellers  were  precedetl  or  followed  by  another  pre- 
historic race,  evidently  more  powerful  and  of  a  higher 
civilization, — namely,  the  Mound-builders.  Short  **  as- 
sures us  that  the  history  of  this  latter  nation  is  a  sealed 
book,  and  their  origin  as  uncertain  jis  the  period  of 
man's  origin ;  yet  their  gigantic  works  have  left,  even 
until  this  day,  unmistakable  traces,  not  only  of  their 
presence  in  our  United  States,  but  of  their  power,  of 
their  arts  and  sciences,  and  of  their  religion  as  well. 
The  archaeological  name  of  these  people  is  derived  from 
the  mounds,  generally  built  of  earth,  sometimes  of 
bricks,  and  in  rare  cases  of  stone,  which  they  have  left 
behind,  all  the  way  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains  and  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  to  the 
fortieth  paralTeT'oFnorthern  latitude.^ 

The  remains  of  their  labors  are  most  noticeable  in 
the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi,  but  they  attract  hardly 
less  attention  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior  and  in 
the  marshes  of  Florida.*  One  of  their  monuments  is 
a  circular  earthern  enclosure,  on  the  Genesee  River  in 
New  York  State,  comprising  an  area  of  six  acres  or 
more,  partly  surrounded   by  a   ditch,  while   on   one 


'  Tlie  remains  of  a  race  held  to 
be  Indians  were  found  in  the  caves 
of  Coahuila,  Mexico.  Putnam's 
first  account  of  his  cave  work  in 
Kentucky  sliows  the  use  of  them 
Bs  habitations  and  as  receptacles 
for  raununies.  I.  P.  Goodnow 
made  similar  explorations  in  Ari- 


zona ;  J.  D.  Whitney  in  Calaveras 
County,  California ;  E.  T.  Elliott 
in  Colorado ;  an(i  Leidy  in  tlie 
Hartman  Cave  in  Pennsylvania. 
(Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  3iK). ) 

»  P.  101. 

'  Cf.  W.  Gleeson  vol.  ii.  p.  322. 

*  Congrtis  Hcient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  115. 


60 


HISTORY    OF   AMEKrCA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


i! 


quarter  a  precipitous  bank  formed  its  defence.  The 
enclosure  was  connected  with  the  river  by  a  causeway, 
a  circumstance  of  usual  occurrence  in  connection  with 
works  of  this  kind.  On  the  Tonawanda,  at  an  interval 
of  a  couple  of  miles,  are  the  remains  of  two  other  en- 
closures, the  intermediate  tract  being  regarded  as  the 
site  of  an  ancient  double-fortified  town.  More  impor- 
tant are  the  remains  at  Porapey,  in  Onondaga  County, 
where  a  fortified  town  of  five  hundred  acres  is  shown  to 
have  existed,  and  was  defended  by  three  circular  forts, 
situated  triangularly  at  equal  distances.  Even  greater 
are  the  monuments  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Licking, 
near  Newark.^  These  works  comprised,  besides  other 
extensive  buildings,  underground  passages  and  an  ob- 
servatory thirty  feet  high.  At  Camillus  and  on  the 
Seneca  River,  and  all  through  the  State  of  New  York, 
no  less  than  one  hundred  of  these  ancient  remains  have 
been  found.  Like  traces  of  the  Mound-builders  have 
been  discovered  in  Virginia,  North  and  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  Florida,  and  all  along  the  eastern  coast.  Near 
Wheeling,  Mr.  Bradford  writes,  there  are  appearances 
of  fortifications  and  enclosures,  commencing  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  mounds  upon  Grave  Creek,  and  con- 
tinuing, at  intermediate  distances,  for  ten  or  twelve 
miles  along  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  communicating 
with  one  another,  and  having,  from  the  largest  en- 
closure, a  broad  causeway  that  leads  towards  the  neigh- 
boring hills.  The  banks  of  the  Little  River,  of  the 
Ocmulgee,  Altamaha,  and  Savannah  Rivers  present 
similar  imposing  monuments.  Mounds  and  terraces 
are  also  to  be  seen  on  the  Chatahoochee,  and  a  con- 
tinuation of  them  extends  into  Alabama  and  farther 
to  the  South.     At  Salem,  Ashtabula  County,  Ohio,  we 


*  Archeeologia  Americana,  p.  137. 


PKE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


61 


meet  with  an  enclosure  situated  on  a  hill  and  fortified 
by  two  circular  walls,  with  a  ditch  intervening.  In 
Warren  County,  between  two  branches  of  the  Little 
Miami,  on  an  elevated  zigzag  plateau,  the  ruins  of  a 
powerful  fortification  exist ;  and  near  Chillicothe,  on 
both  sides  of  Paint  Creek,  numerous  and  extensive 
ruins  invite  the  attention  of  the  antiquarian.  They  all 
are  of  the  same  usual  character,  comprising  square  and 
circular  mounds,  roads,  wells,  and  oblong  elevated 
works.  In  every  State  of  the  Union,  except  on  the 
western  slope,  like  vestiges  of  this  ancient,  powerful, 
and  populous  race  are  to  be  found.  The  traces  of 
them,  writes  Mr.  Brackenbridge  to  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  are  astonishingly  ni  rous  in 
the  western  country.  "  I  should  not  exaggerate,"  he 
continues,  "  if  I  were  to  say  that  five  thousand  might 
be  found,  some  of  them  enclosing  more  than  a  hundred 
acres."  ^ 

The  monuments  of  the  Mound-builders  consist  of 
enormous  conical  pyramids,  excavated  areas,  vast  ter- 
races, irrigation  canals,  wells,  ponds,  underground  pas- 
sages and  causeways,  all  of  them  constructed  in  a 
manner  so  substantial  that  they  remain  perfectly  dis- 
cernible until  this  day.^  As  a  general  thing,  their 
artificial  monticles  and  embankments  are  made  of 
accumulated  earth  ;  but  at  places  the  walls  partly  con- 
sist of  indigenous  rough  stones.  Near  Chillicothe  are 
found  two  elliptical  elevations  constructed  of  stone  and 
of  a  truly  cyclopean  character.  Earthworks  were  fre- 
quently supported  by  brick  constructions,  and  at  eleven 
hundred  miles  west  of  Montreal,  Mr.  de  Veraudri^re 
discovered,  both  in  a  wood  and  in  a  plain,  huge  mono- 


*  For     further     particulars     see        *  Gravier,  pp.  228,  229 ;  CongrSs 
Gleeson,  vol.  11.  pp.  284-295  ;  Short,     Sclent.,  vUi.  sec.  p.  116. 
p.  96. 


62 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


i  !  1 


!■ 


H 


t 


I  ' 


I 


lithic   pillars   erected   bj   man's   han(M    In    another 
'^''~"  placg;  "devoTJ^  of  stone,  he  found  large,  squared  stone 
blocks,  placed  one  on  the  top  of  the  other,  as  to  form  a 
wail/ 

The  shape  of  the  Mound-builders'  gigantic  works 
generally  is  either  circular  or  quadrangular,  but  when- 
j        ever  the  contour  of  the  ground  or  natural  defences 
would  indicate  a  change  of  the  customary  plans,  the 
builders  intelligently  adopted  the  elliptic  or  any  polyg- 
l.     onal  form.     In  certain  cases,  mounds  of  various  shapes 
i      form  together  a  general  combination  of  a  triangle,  a 
j      polygon,  or  a  circle ;  and  in  every  instance  modern 
'     study  feels  obliged  to  approve  the  plans  of  the  prehis- 
toric architects.^ 
■^-^         Some  of  the  terraces  represent  in  their  contours  the 
shape  of  men,  elephants,  and  other  animals ;  an  indica- 
tion, we  would  judge,  that  they  were  intended  for  pleas- 
urable rather  than  for  utilitarian  purposes,  and  that 
their  builders  were,  notwithstanding  their  antiquity, 
sufficiently  endowed  with  art  and  physical  culture  to 
require  such  luxuries  as  our  modern  civilization  could 
hardly  afiford.     Besides  these  fantastic  monuments,  the 
learned  distinguish  several  other  kinds  of  mounds  left 
us  by  this  interesting  race.     They  mention  their  for- 
tifications in  connection  with  their  observation-  and 
signal-posts,  their  temple  enclosures  and  temples,  their 
sacrifice-  and  burial-pyramids.^ 

The  best  military  judges,  Mr.  Bradford  writes,*  have 
observed  the  skill  with  which  the  sites  of  many  of  the 


^  Congres  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  115  ; 
Gravier,  pp.  228,  229,  ref.  to  War- 
den, Ileclierches  sur  lea  Antiquit^a 
de  I'Ainerique  Septentrionale,  pas- 
sim,  ill  2d  vol.  of  M^moirea  de  la 
Soci6t6  de  G^ographie  de  Paris ; 
Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  293. 


'  Gravier,  p.  228  ;  Congr^a  Scient., 
viii.  aec.  p.  116. 

*  Cronau,  S.  30-46  ;  Aa.  pisaim. 

*  American  Antiquities,  p.  70,  as 
referred  to  by  Gleeaon,  vol.  ii.  p. 
290. 


v.v-"* 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


63 


fortifications  have  been  selected,  and  the  artful  com- 
bination of  natural  advantages  with  artificial  means 
of  defence  exhibited  in  their  construction.  The  care 
which  is  everywhere  visible  about  these  ruins  to  pro- 
tect every  part  from  a  foe  without,  the  high  plain  on 
which  they  are  situated, — generally  forty  feet  above 
the  country  around  it, — the  pains  taken  to  get  at  the 
water  as  well  as  to  protect  those  who  wished  to  obtain 
it,  the  fertile  soil  of  the  neighborhood,  which  appears 
to  have  been  cultivated, — all  these  are  circumstances 
that  speak  volumes  in  favor  of  the  sagacity  of  their 
authors.^ 

Mr.  Harris  says,^  "  The  engineers  who  directed  the 
execution  of  the  Miami  work  appear  to  have  known 
the  importance  of  flank  defences,  and  if  their  bastions 
are  not  so  perfect  as  those  which  are  in  use  in  modern 
engineering,  their  position  and  the  long  lines  of  cur- 
tains are  precisely  as  they  should  be."  Mr.  Carver 
bears  similar  testimony :  "  Though  much  defaced  by 
time,  every  angle  is  distinguishable,  and  appears  as  reg- 
ular and  fashioned  with  as  much  military  skill  as  if 
planned  by  Vauban  himself."  ^  The  Mound-builders' 
forts  enclosed,  besides  defensive  works,  wells  and  arti- 
ficial lakes,  burying-places,  gardens,  and  strategic  look- 
outs.* The  works  on  the  south  bank  of  the  Licking, 
near  Newark,  comprised  an  octagonal  and  a  circular 
fort  connected  by  parallel  walls,  a  circular  and  a  square 
fort  similarly  connected,  and  an  enclosure  containing 
one  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  together  with  numerous 
small  works  of  defence,  underground  passages,  and  an 
observatory  thirty  feet  high.     The  area  comprised  by 


>  Gleeson,  vol.  ii  pp.  290,  291, 
ref.  to  Archieologia  Americana,  p. 
130. 

"  Harrison's  Discourse,  referred 
to  by  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  291. 


*  Carver's  Travels,  p.  45,  as  quoted 
by  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  291 ;  Gravier, 
p.  228 ;  Congres  Scient.,  viii.  sec. 
p.  115. 

*  Gravier,  p.  229. 


64 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Ji 


the  whole  was  between  three  and  four  hundred  acres.^ 
Similar  military  constructions,  which  we  have  no  space 
to  describe,  are  found  in  many  other  localities.  In  con- 
nection with  their  fortifications,  these  people  had  also 
regular  systems  of  signal-mounds  placed  on  lofty  sum- 
mits, visible  from  their  settlements  and  communicating 
with  the  great  water-courses  at  immense  distances. 
These  systems  were  more  extensive  than,  and  as  per- 
fect as,  those  in  use  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century.'^ 

Another  kind  of  mounds  are  considered  by  archae- 
ologists as  remains  of  immense  and  sumptuous  edifices 
destined  for  religious  purposes.  They  were  truncated 
pyramids  surrounded  by  an  enclosure  or  other  build- 
ings of  smaller  dimensions.  The  most  notable  in 
Georgia,  and  best  deserving  attention,  is  a  truncated 
conical  mound  fifty  feet  high  and  eight  hundred  in 
circumference  at  the  base.  The  summit  was  reached 
by  a  spiral  stair,  while  four  niches  at  different  inter- 
vals and  corresponding  with  the  four  cardinal  points 
would  make  it  appear  that  it  was  intended  for  purposes 
of  religion.  Around,  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  are 
other  erections  varying  from  six  to  ten  feet  in  height, 
but  having  a  quadrangular  area  of  four  hundred  feet.^ 
The  one  of  St.  Louis,  on  the  Cahokia,  is  over  ninety 
feet  high,  and  its  circumference  is  of  some  two  thousand 
two  hundred  feet,  thus  attaining  the  dimensions  of  the 
famous  pyramid  of  Asychis.* 

These  structures,  similar  in  form  to  the  later  teocalli 
or  temples  of  Mexico,  most  probably  had  the  same 
destination ;  but  numerous  excavations  have  clearly 
demonstrated  that  several  pyramids  and  truncated 
cones  have  been  raised  by  the  Mound-builders  to  serve, 


>  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  285,  293. 
»  Short,  p.  98. 


'  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  286. 
♦  Gravier,  p.  230. 


PRE-CHKISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


65 


as  in  Egypt  and  other  countries,  as  glorious  resting- 
places  for  the  mortal  remains  of  either  some  great  per- 
sonage or  of  influential  or  powerful  families.^  These 
tumuli,  which  until  the  present  day  inspire  awe  and 
admiration,  are  found  in  every  part  of  the  country. 

The  tumuli  in  Scioto  County  arc  both  numerous  and 
interesting ;  they  are  very  common  on  the  Ohio,  from 
its  highest  sources  to  its  mouth ;  few  and  small,  com- 
paratively, they  are  found  on  the  waters  of  the  Mo- 
nongahela,  but  increase  in  number  and  size  as  we 
descend  towards  the  mouth  of  the  stream  at  Pittsburg. 
As  many  as  five  hundred  and  more  have  been  shown 
to  exist  in  the  State  of  Kentucky  alone.  In  Illinois, 
within  a  small  circle  of  a  few  miles,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  have  been  erected,  differing  in  altitude,  in  magni- 
tude, and  figure.  Some  of  them,  in  the  shape  of 
truncated  pyramids,  are  constructed  upon  artificially 
formed  terraces  of  two  or  more  stages.^ 

All  of  these  cemeteries  contain  a  larger  or  smaller 
quantity  of  human  bones.  Mr.  Caleb  Atwater,  who 
carefully  searched  the  mounds  of  Ohio,  assures  us  that 
many  of  them  contain  an  immense  number  of  skele- 
tons.^ In  some  tumuli  the  fact  has  been  discovered 
that  the  bodies  were  laid  betimes  on  a  bed  of  stone,  and 
were,  by  another  layer  of  stone,  formerly  a  vault,  pro- 
tected against  the  weight  of  the  superimposed  eleva- 
tion.* 

Nadaillac^  affords  an  instance  of  another  curious 
kind  of  the  Mound-builders'  burials  :  "  Excavations  in 
some  mounds  at  Greenwood,  near  Lebanon,  Tennessee, 
have  revealed  burial-places ;  from  one  to  two  hundred 


^  Congrfis  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p. 
115 ;  Gravier,  p.  230 ;  Gleeson, 
vol.  ii.  p.  293,  seq. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  294,  295, 

•  Archseol.    Amer.,    p.    223;    cf. 

I.— 5 


Gravier,   p.  231 ;  Gleeson,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  295,  298. 

*  Gravier,  p.  231. 

'  Prehistoric  America,  p.  95. 


66 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


|.s. 


skeletons  have  been  found  in  each  stratum  of  the 
mounds.  It  has  been  remarked,"  he  adds,  "  that  the 
earth  with  which  they  were  covered  did  not  belong  to 
the  spot  in  which  they  were  found,  but  must  have  been 
brought  there  from  a  distance."  This  fact  bears  wit- 
ness to  the  respect  shown  by  these  men  to  their  dead, 
and  to  the  importance  they  attached  to  funeral  rites. 

That  the  corpses,  however,  were  not  invariably  buried 
entire,  is  evidenced  by  the  presence  of  ashes,  charcoal, 
and  calcined  remains.  In  Ohio,  near  Lancaster,  a 
tumulus  was  found  to  contain  an  enormous  earthen 
coffin,  eighteen  feet  long  by  six  wide  and  two  deep.  It 
rested  on  a  thick  layer  of  ashes  and  charcoal,  and  mani- 
fested by  its  appearance  that  it  had  been  subjected  to 
the  action  of  a  powerful  fire.  It  contained  the  remains 
of  twelve  human  beings  of  different  sizes  and  ages.^ 
Nadaillac  ^  likewise  states  the  fact  that,  in  some  places, 
interred  corpses  and  cinerated  remains  are  found  almost 
side  by  side. 

The  Mound-builders'  burial-grounds  not  only  contain 
their  personal  remains,  but  also  various  kinds  of  relics 
of  their  workmanship,  and  are  rich  mines  of  archseo- 
logical  information.  Arrow-heads,  cutlery,  and  ham- 
mers of  flint  and  stone  highly  polished  are  found  in 
them,^  by  the  side  of  similar  tools,  weapons,  and  orna- 
ments, made  of  severul  kinds  of  metal,  and  especially 
of  copper,  which  they  knew  how  to  extract  from  the 
mines  near  Lake  Superior,  to  purify  and  to  manu- 
facture.* Besides  ochre,  crystal,  and  jasper,  the  tumuli 
contain  quantities  of  mica,  either  in  its  natural  state  or 
fashioned  into  plates,  medals,  and  beautiful  mirrors.^ 


'. 


>  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  295,  296. 

*  Prehistoric  America,  p.  118. 

*  C!ongr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p. 
116 ;  Gravier,  p.  231 ;  Aa.  pae- 
Bim. 


*  Congr^  Scient. ,  viii.  see.  p. 
115  ;  Gravier,  p.  231 ;  Short,  p.  98 ; 
Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  295,  299. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  295,  300 ; 
Short,  p.  98. 


PEE-CHRISTIAN  AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


67 


Iron  seems  to  have  been  unknown  in  America  at  the 
time  of  the  Spanish  discovery,  but  the  Mound-builders' 
graveyards  afford  proof  that  they  not  only  knew  it,  but 
manufactured  it  into  tools  and  implements.  In  the 
sepulchral  mound  at  Marietta  there  was  found  in  the 
year  1819  a  little  lump  of  iron  ore  that  had  almost 
the  specific  gravity  of  pure  iron,  and  presented  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  partially  smelted,  while  in  the  mound 
at  Circleville  oxidized  irpn  was  unearthed  in  the  shape 
of  a  plate.^  Silver  has  been  discovered  in  several 
tumuli,  as  either  simply  pieces  of  the  precious  metal  or 
the  metal  manufactured  into  a  variety  of  beautiful  or- 
naments, or  used  to  plate  copper  and  other  inferior 
materials.  Even  gold  ornaments  are  said  to  have  been 
found  in  some  cemetories  of  the  Mound-builders.^  More 
common  but  no  less  useful  minerals  were  known  to  the 
Mound-builders,  such  as  coal  and  lead,'"*  which  they 
obtained  by  laboriously  digging  awa}^  the  strata  under 
which  the  mineral  lay  hidden.  It  is  likely  that  this 
same  nation,  by  sinking  deep  shafts  at  Oil  Creek,  near 
Titusville,  Pennsylvania,  at  Mecca,  Ohio,  and  at  Ennis- 
killen,  Canada,  obtained  the  kerosene  which  they  prob- 
ably knew  how  to  utilize  as  well  as  the  ancient  people 
of  Persia  and  China.* 

All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  Mound-builders  were 
no  savages,  but  if  we  make  another  step  into  our  study 
of  their  relics,  we  shall  be  compelled  to  admit  that  they 
were  extraordinarily  skilful,  advanced  in  art,  and  not 
deprived  of  a  high  degree  of  science  not  expected  to  be 
found  among  so  ancient  a  nation.  To  substantiate  this 
assertion  we  need  only  mention  a  few  articles  of  their 


»  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  296,  300. 

'  Gravier,  p.  231  ;  Gleeeon,  vol. 
ii.  pp.  295,  299,  n.  1,  300 ;  ref.  to 
Arch.  Amer.,  p.  223. 


'  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  295. 

*  Cf.  Nadaillac,  in  Congrds  Scl- 
ent., viii.  see.  p.  125 ;  ref.  to  Amer- 
ican Anthropologist,  May,  1889. 


!  IB  '  '  1 

'' 

!  / 

' 

• 

i 

i    ' 

lig! 


68 


HI8TORY    OP^    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


beautiful  liandiwork.  Their  industry  is  evinced  by- 
various  kinds  and  a  great  number  of  their  domestic 
utensils  and  by  the  cloth  of  which  they  made  their 
clothing,  woven  ingeniously  of  different  fibrous  sub- 
stances, and  in  particular  of  the  tender  bark  of  young 
trees/ 

Beads  of  bone  and  shell,  carved  bones,*^  and  sculptured 
stones  are  by  no  means  rare.  Quite  a  number  of  their 
weapons  and  instruments  were  made  from  the  hardest 
of  rock,  and  arrow-heads,  axes,  and  hatchets  of  granite 
and  horn-blende,  nicely  cut  and  polished,  are  of  frequent 
occurrence.  The  covers  of  some  of  the  urns  are  com- 
post; J  vjf  calcareous  breccia  skilfully  wrought ;  the  pieces 
of  stone  worn  as  ornaments  and  found  interred  with  the 
dead,  have  been  drilled  and  worked  into  precise  shapes, 
and  the  pipe-bowls  ornamented  with  beautifully  carved 
reliefs.'^  In  a  mound  at  Cincinnati  were  found  carved 
vases  and  the  sculptured  representation  of  a  bird's  head. 
In  June  of  1819,  upon  opening  a  mound  at  Marietta, 
some  very  remarkable  objects  were  discovered,  consist- 
ing of  three  large  circular  copper  bosses  thickly  overlaid 
with  silver,  and  apparently  intended  as  ornaments  for 
a  buckler  or  a  sword-belt.  On  the  reverse  were  two 
plates  fastened  by  a  copper  rivet  or  nail,  around  which 


'  Cf.  Sho\t,  p.  96.  J.  W.  Foster 
first  made,  in  the  year  1838,  the 
discovery  of  relics  of  textile  fabrics 
of  the  Mound-builders.  He  figures 
the  implements  found  in  the 
mounds,  supposed  to  have  been 
employed  in  making  their  cloth 
with  warp  and  woof.  Putnam  has 
since  made  similar  discoveries. 
The  fabrics  were  jireserved  by 
being  placed  in  contact  with  copper 
implements.  (Winsor,  vol.  i.  pp. 
419,  420.)  Specimens  of  regularly 
woven  cloth  have  been  found,  par- 


ticularly in  a  mound  of  Madison 
township,  Butler  County,  Ohio,  on 
the  Great  Miami  River.  (Southall, 
p.  539.)  The  fabric  appears  to  be 
composed  of  some  material  allied 
to  hemp,  and  the  original  texture 
corresponds  with  that  of  coarse  sail- 
cloth. (Foster,  p.  225,  ap.  South- 
all,  p.  547.) 

''■  This  reminds  us  of  the  carved 
bones  found  in  the  ruins  of  the 
Swiss  lacustrine  villages. 

» Bradford,  p.  25. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


69 


was  a  flaxen  thread,  while  between  the  plates  were  two 
small  pieces  of  leather.  The  copper  showed  much  sign 
of  decay  ;  it  was  almost  reduced  to  an  oxide ;  but  the 
silver,  though  much  corroded,  resumed  its  natural  bril- 
liancy on  being  burnished.  In  the  same  tumulus  was 
also  found  a  hollow  silver  plate  six  inches  long  and 
two  broad,  intended  apparently  as  the  upper  part  of  a 
sword-scabbard.  The  scabbard  itself  seems  to  have 
perished  in  the  course  of  time,  as  no  other  portion  of  it 
was  found,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  broken,  rust- 
eaten  pieces  of  a  copper  tube,  which  was  likely  in- 
tended for  the  reception  of  the  point  of  the  weapon. 
In  addition  to  these,  there  was  also  discovered  in 
this  same  sepulchral  ruin  a  piece  of  copper  of  three 
ounces  weight  which,  in  shape,  resembled  a  builder's 
plumb,  and  may  have  been  used  for  architectural  pur- 
poses.^ 

It  is  well  known  that  a  great  number  of  pipe-bowls, 
indicative  of  a  modern  luxury  in  prehistoric  times  have 
been  found  in  many  necropoles.  Some  were  made  of 
copper  hammered  out  and  not  welded  but  lapped  over. 
A  bracelet  of  copper  was  discovered  in  a  stone  mound 
near  Chillicothe.  "  I  have  seen,"  says  the  writer  of 
the  Archseologia  Americana,^  "  several  arrow-heads  of 
this  metal,  some  of  which  were  five  or  six  inches  in 
length,  and  must  have  been  used  as  heads  of  spears. 
Circular  medals  of  this  same  metal,  several  inches  in 
diameter,  very  thin  and  much  injured  by  time,  have 
often  been  found  in  the  tumuli ;  they  had  no  inscrip- 
tion that  I  could  discover ;  some  of  them  were  large 
enough  to  have  answered  for  breast-plates." 

When  considering  the  relics  of  this  noble  prehistoric 
race,  as  perfe^^t  as  gigantic,  one  can  hardly  help  think- 


»  Gleeson,   vol.   ii.   pp.  295,  300 ; 
Gravier,  p.  231. 


■'  P.  224. 


70 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I 


ing  of  another  people  that  would  be  prehistoric  also 
were  it  not  for  the  biblical  records,  that  is,  of  the 
Egyptians,  who  built  their  everlasting  pyramids  and 
compelled  their  Jewish  slaves  to  mould  their  bricks ; 
and  of  a  gentile  grandee,  of  Job,  who,  perhaps  a  con- 
temporary of  the  Mound-builders,  expressed  the  wish 
that  his  discourses  might  be  written  with  an  iron  pen 
and  in  a  plate  of  lead,  or  else  be  graven  with  an  instru- 
ment, "  celte,"  in  flint  stone.^  But  few  modern  cutlery 
manufacturers  could  temper  and  sharpen  Job's  burin  ; 
and  who  prepared  the  tools  of  the  Mound-builders' 
brick-burners  and  stone-cutters,  of  their  miners  and 
ore-smelters,  of  their  mechanics,  artists,  and  engravers 
on  flint? 

If  mechanical  arts  and  material  welfare  were  civili- 
zation and  refinement,  we  might  presume  that  the  an- 
cient Mound-builders  would  not  be  unwelcome  in  our 
best  society  circles,  the  theory  of  perpetual  progress 
notwithstand  ing. 

To  justify  this  strange  opinion  we  will  adduce  only 
one  more  proof, — namely,  the  remains  of  their  ceramic 
art,  as  they  may  be  seen  at  the  National  Museum  of 
Washington,  D.  C.  We  have  noticed  already  the 
carved  vases  found  in  a  burial-mound  at  Cincinnati. 
A  great  quantity  of  curious  and  well-finished  colored 
pottery  has  been  brought  to  several  museums  from  the 
tumuli  of  the  Mound-builders.'^  Some  of  the  vessels 
have  been  pronounced  by  competent  authority  to  be 
equal  to  anything  of  the  kind  manufactured  elsewhere 
in  the  world.  Two  covers  of  vessels  were  found  in  a 
stone  mound  in  Ross  County,  Ohio,  very  ingeniously 
wrought  by  the  artists  and  highly  polished.  They  are 
made  of  calcareous  breccia,  and  resemble  almost  ex- 


'  Gen.   xi.   2 ;  Exod.  i.  14  ;  Job 
xix.  23,  24. 


=  Cronau,  S.  46. 


i 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS.  71 

actly,  and  are  equal  to,  vessels  of  that  material  pro- 
duced in  Italy  at  the  present  day.'  A  number  «f 
specimens  are  found  to  have  been  manufactured  on 
scientific  principles,  capable,  in  some  instances,  as  our 
assayers'  vessels,  of  withstanding  a  high  degree  of  heat. 
They  were  made  of  clay  and  pulverized  sandstone  or 
calcareous  matter,  artistically  wrought,  polished,  glazed, 
and  burned.  A  very  remarkable  specimen  was  found, 
more  than  half  a  century  ago,  in  the  alluvial  soil  of 
the  Ohio,  bearing  upon  it  the  marks  of  fire,  and  was 
proved  to  be  capable  of  sustaining  intense  heat.  It 
was  conjectured  that  it  had  been  used  as  a  crucible. 
Another  was  an  urn  discovered  in  Chillicothe  and 
pronounced  to  be  an  exact  copy  of  one  unearthed  in  A 
Scotland.*  "^ 

The  reader  has  noticed  how  these  people  were  skilful 
in  cutting  stone,  burning  brick,  and  making  use  of 
these  materials,  how  they  were  likely  the  first  to  ex- 
ploit the  copper-mines  of  the  Great  Lakes ;  and  from 
the  foregoing  statements  we  might  easily  infer  that 
they  were  also  given  to  agricultural  pursuits,  a  conclu- 
sion which  is  sustained  by  direct  positive  evidence. 
While  some  of  their  canals  united  lake  systems,  others 

that  can  yet  be  followed  for  hundreds  of  miles  had  for 

evident  object  the  irrigation  of  dry  lands  and  the  pro- 
motion of  their  profitable  culture.^  On  an  island  in 
Lake  George,  Florida,  are  the  ruins  of  a  considerable 
town  and  of  a  pyramidal  mound,  connected  by  a  double 
wall  with  a  neighboring  plain  or  savannah,  indicating 
the  agricultural  character  of  the  people.  More  evident 
signs  are  presented  by  the  extensive  garden-beds  and 
terraces  found  in  Wisconsin  and  Missouri,  whose  agri- 

'  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  301,  referring        '  Congr^s    Scient.,    viii.    sec.    p. 
to  Archteol.  Amer.,  p.  227.  115  ;  Short,  p.  98 ;  Aa.  passim. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  pp.  301,  302. 


72 


insTOKY    OF    AMKKltW    UKFOKK   COMMHl'S. 


■ 


oiiltural  obioct  ooultl  lumUv  bo  inistakon.'  As  l*ut- 
nam  siiYs,  tluM'o  s^ooms  to  bo  oiuuiiili  ovidonoo  that  tlio 
oouifitruotors  of  tho  old  oartli-works  woro  an  ai»rioultural 
raeiO  Nay,  tliat  the  Momul-buiUlois  oultivatod  tlie 
soil  in  a  inothodioal  mannor  tar  (lilVoront  trom  tho  moilo 
pursuotl  by  the  prosonl  Indians  is  ovidont  tVoni  tho 
vestiixos  of  a  sorios  ot*  anoiont  works  whioh  ooonr  in 
portions  of  tho  rogion  btirdorins;  on  Lako  Miohii»an, 
and  partioularly  in  b)wor  Wisoonsin,  in  tho  valloys  of 
Grand  Uivor  and  St.  dosoph's,  lMiohii>;an,  as  also  in 
northorn  Indiaini.  and  whioh  aro  known  as  **  u;ardon- 
bods."  Many  of  tho  linos  of  tho  plots  arc  rootangnlar 
and  [>araliol.  t>thors  aro  soniioironlar  and  varionsly 
curvod,  forniir.g  avonnos  ditVovontly  gronpod  and  dia- 
pased.  Dr.  Laphain  dosoribos  thoso  of  Wisoonsin  as 
insisting  of  low  parallol  ridgos,  a«  if  oiu'n  had  boen 
plantod  in  drills.  Thoy  avorago  fonr  foot  in  width, 
and  twonty-tivo  of  thoni  havo  boon  oonntod  in  the 
space  of  one  hnndrod  foot.  Tho  do}>th  of  the  walk 
between  thoin  is  about  six  inohos.'' 

The  groat  variety  of  tho  articles  tbuiul  together  in  tho 
I\lound-bui Idol's'  distant  burial-places  pnnos  their  com- 
mercial relations.  The  sea-shells  of  the  .\tlantic  ()cean 
and  of  the  Mexican  (lulf  wore  exchanged  for  the  cojv- 
per  of  Lake  Superior,  and  a  similar  barter  is  indicated 
by  tho  juxtapositit)n  of  coal,  silver.  Hint,  oohre,  pot- 
teries of  difterojit  nuUerial,  masterpieces  of  workman- 
ship, and  so  on.*  Pipes  made  of  very  hard  stone 
fretpiently  occur  in  the  graves  of  the  Mound-bnildeiu 
These  pipes  oft'Mi  represent  animals  or  birds  peculiar 
to  South  America ;  and  we  must  iiifer,  therefore,  tliat 


*  Short,  p.  on ;  GlMBon,  vol.  it. 
p.  5rt)l,  n'forrii\jt  \o  .\rchuH>l. 
An>«'r,,  p.  i;U) ;  (innior,  p.  22l>, 

•  WiiiHor,  vol.  i.  p.  410. 


•  Fontw.  pp.  tt«^,  Ml. 

*  Ci  Short,  p.  W  ;  Wiiwor,  vol.  i. 
p.  A'A). 


i 
\ 

\ 


rujxnnnsTiAN  amf.kuwn  nationh. 


78 


I 


tho  Mouiul-huiKloit^  (rairu'kod.  dirootly  or  iinHroctly, 
with  that  ivgion,  as  wo  know  thov  dui  with  otlior  tar- 
distant  Ku'alitios.' 

A  sincuhir  ovidtMU'o  at  oiico  ot"  tlio  kinship  ami  tho 
ontorpriso  ol*  tho  Ainorioan  raoos.  vsays  Sonlliall.'*  is  tho 
[)rosonoo  in  tho  monnils  of  Ohio  of  tlio  poarls  aiulshoUs 
of  tho  (inlt',  of  tlio  ohsidian  of  Moxioo,  of  tho  mioa  of 
North  Carolina,  of  tlio  jado  of  Cluli,  of  tho  h>ad  of 
Wisoonsin,  oi'  tiio  ooppor  nnd  jjrohahly  tho  silvor  of 
()ntonau;on  and  J  ho  Kowoonaw  juMiinsnhi,  and  of  oarv- 
in<»'s  roprosonting  tho  nnmatooof  Sontii  Aniorioa  or  tho 
Antillos,  and  tlio  jaguar,  tho  ot»ni»;ar,  tho  tonoan,  and 
th(»  pannpiot.  Thost^  sonlpturos  aro  vory  sinuhu*  to 
thoso  of  Porn,  and  aro  not  inforior  as  works  of  art. 

Nor  do  tlio  monnds  hoar  witnoss  onlv  to  tlio  Mound- 
hnihlors'  high  dogroo  of  j>orfootit>n  in  nioohanio'd  art 
and  inatorial  pursuits,  but  tlioy  also  tostify  to  sonio  of 
thoir  striotly  soiontifio  attaininonts.  Thoy  woro  no- 
quaintod  with  tho  circlo,  tho  sipiaro,  tho  trianglo,  and 
all  otlior  gooinotrioal  tignros;  t hoy  know  tho  four  eai*- 
dinal  points,  towards  whioh  thoy  invariably  nnulo  the  ^ 
oponings  of  thoir  roligious  odifioos  with  wondort'ul  ao- 
ouraoy  ;  and  oxporionood  anti(piarians  aro  inolinod  to 
think  that  thoy  woro  in  [>ossossion,  if  not  of  a  phonotio, 
at  loast  of  a  svnibolio  svstoni  of  writini»v'  Should  spaoe 
allow,  wo  might  sot  forth  nioro  ovidonoo-s  of  tho  oulturo 
and  oivilizatitHi  of  tliis  prohistorio  raoo;  but  wo  should 
not  nogloot  to  olxsorvo  that  thoir  struoturos  boar  tofc^ti- 
r,«ony  to  thoir  power  no  less  than  to  their  arohitootural 
tiilent. 

Aooording  to  competent  enginoors,  it  would  take 
several  .thousands  of  our  worknu»n,  providod  with  all 
the   reaouroos  of   our  grand   niodorn  industrios,   long 


'  SouthiUl,  I),  lor. 


Qlomm,  vol.  ii.  p.  \m> 


\ 


74 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


years  to  erect  some  of  their  monuments,  among  which 
there  are  such  as  rival  the  Egyptian  pyramids  in 
grandeur,^  while  some  of  the  stones  they  set  up  are 
hardly  less  in  size  than  those  which  adorn  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Nile.^  Add  to  all  this  that  the  number 
of  these  grand  monuments  is  almost  incalculable,  and 
we  shall  necessarily  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
Mound-builders  were  a  race  numerous  and  well  gov- 
erned. 

Wide-spread  as  they  were,  their  settlements  grew  to 
be  very  populous.^  From  Mr.  Brackenbridge  we  learn 
that  as  many  as  five  thousand  villages  have  been  dis- 
covered in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  alone ;  and  Mr. 
Caleb  Atwater  was  of  the  opinion  that  the  State  of 
Ohio  once  possessed  close  upon  a  million  of  inhabitants. 
His  grounds  for  this  assertion  seem  to  have  been  the 
number  and  extent  of  the  ruins,  as  well  as  the  dimen- 
sions and  contents  of  the  tumuli.  Many  of  the  mounds, 
he  writes,  contain  an  immense  number  of  skeletons. 
Those  of  Big  Grave  Creek  are  believed  to  be  com-  | 
pleteiy  filled  with  human  bones.  The  larger  mounds, 
all  along  the  principal  river  of  this  State,  are  also 
filled  with  skeletons.  Millions  of  people  have  been 
buried  in  these  cemeteries.* 

Mere  numbers  of  workmen  would  not  account  for 
these  ancient  monuments.  They  must  have  been  con- 
certed, directed,  and  controlled  by  some  governing 
power,  able  to  pay  or  to  compel  thousands  of  artisans, 
subjects,  or  slaves.  The  vastness  and  the  multitude  of 
the  mounds  and  the  relics  they  contain  establish  beyond 
a  doubt  that  the  Mound-builders  had  a  well-regulated 
government,  likely  of  a  religious  or  military  character ; 


*  Short,  p.  96  ;  Nadaillac,  Prehis- 
toric America,  p.  85. 
'  Gravier,  p.  229. 


'Short,  p.  96. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  298. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


75 


that  they  were  not  a  migratory  horde,  but  a  people  set- 
tled down  in  the  country  and  governed  by  laws.  No 
one  will  contest  this  assertion ;  but  it  may  not  unrea- 
sonably appear  to  some  that  the  operatives  were  of  the 
same  servile  condition  as  those  who  made  brick  for  the 
Egyptians  or  built  palaces  for  the  emperors  of  Rome.^ 

The  power  and  civilization  of  this  race  would  better" 
suit  the  plans  of  modern  theorists,  should  they  have 
been  found  in  these  United  States  at  the  time  of  the 
latest  discovery  of  America ;  but  the  Northmen,  five 
centuries  before,  met  none  in  our  country  but  Skrae- 
lings  or  miserable  savages ;  and  when  the  other  white 
races  made  their  appearance  the  antique  mounds  were 
deserted  and  the  people  by  whom  they  had  been 
constructed  were  locally  extinct,  so  that  the  question  of 
their  age  and  origin  necessarily  remains  a  subject  of 
inquiry  for  the  antiquary  rather  than  for  the  historian. 
The  botanist  is  perhaps  the  best  of  informants  in  the 
present  case,  because,  while  no  monumental  inscription 
nor  historic  account  can  be  offered  to  determine  the  age 
of  this  race,  the  searcher  may  find  satisfactory  data  in 
the  unmistakable  record  of  ages  written  on  earth's 
vegetation.  Springing  from  amid  the  ruins  of  many  of 
the  Mound-builders'  monuments  are  majestic  trees, 
whose  concentric  circles  or  annual  layers  of  wood  evince 
them  to  be  from  six  to  eight  hundred  years  old  ;  "^  and 
not  only  that,  but  presenting  evidence  of  being  a 
second,  if  not  a  third  or  a  fourth  growth.''  Gleeson 
writes,  quoting  from  actual  researches,  "  Most  of  these 
monuments  are  covered  with  forests,  and,  while  many 
of  the  trees  are  of  great  age,  the  vestiges  of  decayed 


^  Short,  p.  96 ;  Gleeson,  vol.  ii. 
p.  296;  Gravier,  p.  230;  Aa.  pas- 
eim. 

*  Few  or  none  object  to  the 
reckoning  of  one  year  to  each  con- 


centric circle  in  latitudes  like  that 
of  the  United  States. 

'  Gravier,  p.   22t) ;  Gleeson,  vol. 
ii.  p.  ;W7. 


76 


HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I 


Ktl 


11 


trunks  and  the  absence  of  uniformity  of  character  pecu- 
liar to  a  second  growth  demonstrate  that  several  genera- 
tions of  trees  have  sprung  up  and  disappeared  since 
these  works  were  deserted."  "  The  sites  of  the  ancient 
works  on  the  Ohio/'  Mr.  Harrison  says,  "  present  pre- 
cisely the  same  appearance  as  the  circumjacent  woods. 
You  find  on  them  all  the  beautiful  variety  of  trees 
which  give  such  unrivalled  richness  to  our  forests. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  on  the  fifteen  acres  in- 
cluded within  the  walls  of  the  mounds  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Great  Miami,  and  the  relative  proportions  of 
the  different  kinds  of  timber  are  about  the  same.  .  .  . 
Of  what  immense  age  must  be  those  works,  covered  by 
two  or  more  growths  of  large  and  decaying  trees !" 

Another  argument  in  favor  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
the  ruins  are  the  various  physical  changes  which  have 
manifestly  occurred  since  their  erection,  and  which 
could  only  be  the  result  of  natural  causes  protracted 
through  centuries.  Thus  in  Florida,  what  manifestly 
were  lakes  at  one  time,  being  approached  by  avenues 
from  the  mounds,  is  now  dry  land.  Nor  is  there  any 
record  or  recollection  among  the  natives  of  when  the 
change  took  place.  In  the  West,  in  like  manner,  on 
the  margin  of  deserted  lakes  and  altered  rivers,  are  to 
be  found  similar  remains,  while  in  the  State  of  New 
York  the  lines  of  mural  relics  are  on  former  shores  of 
the  lakes  Erie  and  Ontario.  The  absence,  therefore, 
of  all  tradition  in  regard  to  this  race  among  their  suc- 
cessors, as  well  as  the  records  written  in  the  heart  of  the 
woods  and  of  the  geological  strata,  all  lead  us  to  con- 
clude that  the  Mound-builders'  presence  in  our  States 
dates  from  the  remotest  antiquity.^ 

The  proposition  that  they  were  the  first  of  American 


'  Gleeson,  vol.  ii.  p.  SO",  neq. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN   AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


77 


powerful  nations  would  involve  no  contradiction,  but 
there  is  no  proof  that  they  were  autochthonous.  Short  ^ 
is  of  the  opinion  that  they  first  came  into  the  country 
in  small  numbers. 

But  here  arises  the  question  of  their  origin,  a  ques- 
tion that  has  been  answered  by  various  conjectures, 
none  of  which  has  been  substantiated  by  any  con- 
clusive arguments.  Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey  affirms 
that  the  race  of  the  Mounds  were  unequivocally  dis- 
tinct from  the  North  American  Indian,  and  were  im- 
migrants from  Asia  by  the  way  of  Behring's  Strait.^ 
Jousset  ^  finds  an  indication  of  their  Asiatic  origin  in 
the  outlines  of  the  elephant  that  circumscribed  some  of 
their  mounds  and  in  the  representations  of  the  same 
animal  on  their  pottery.  Some  Jesuits,  says  Gravier,* 
took  for  Tartar  characters  the  unknown  signs  that 
were  discovered  on  both  sides  of  a  small  slab  among 
the  stones  of  an  ancient  wall  overgrown  with  trees.  The 
statement,  though  slighting,  should  not  pass  unnoticed. 

H.  H.  Bancroft  ^  expresses  the  opinion  that  the  cul- 
ture of  the  Mound-builders  was  introduced  by  a  colony 
or  by  teachers  from  the  South, — namely,  by  a  colony 
of  the  ancient  Mayas^  who  settled  in  the  North  during 
the  continuance  of  the  great  Maya  empire  of  Xibalba, 
in  Central  America,  several  centuries  before  Christ. 
Others  think  that  the  Mound-builders'  migrations  have 
taken  place  in  the  opposite  direction.  Squire "  remarks 
that  the  monuments  of  the  Mississippi  grow  in  gran- 
deur and  perfection  as  we  find  them  nearer  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  that  they  seem  to  bear  the  same  religious 
impress  as  those  of  Central  America.     The  traditional 


'  p.  96. 

'  Annals  of  Science,  Cleveland, 
1853,  pp.  16,  16,  ap.  Winchell,  p. 
494. 

'  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  eec.  p.  115. 


♦  P.  229. 

»  Vol.  V.  pp.  638,  639. 

•  Monuments  of  the  Miseissippi 
Valley,  ap.  Gravier,  p.  231. 


Ml 


78 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


^1 


and  the  historical  testimony  of  the  Mexicans  offer  new 
grounds  to  suppose  that  their  race,  the  founders  of 
Mexican  civilization,  were  the  descendants  of  those  by 
whom  the  great  works  found  within  the  limits  of  the 
American  Republic  were  achieved,  stating  that  their 
ancestors  came  from  the  Northeast,  through  glacial 
regions.^ 

Reminders  of  the  Mound-builders'  works  are  pre- 
sented by  the  earthfiH-.mounds  found  as  far  south  as 
Colombia,  Peru,  and  Chili,  which,  in  like  manner,  con- 
tain the  bones  of  the  dead  and  many  evidences  of  the 
decree  of  civilization  of  these  countries.  Those  of  Rabi- 
nal,  Vera  Paz,  are  especially  remarkable  in  this  regard.^ 
H.  H.  Bancroft  further  remarks  that  the  Mound-build- 
ers were  in  some  way  connected  with  the  civilized 
nations  of  Central  America,  but  he  acknowledges  that 
the  connection  is  involved  in  historical  difficulties  from 
which  there  is  no  escape  save  by  conjecture. 

The  Mound-builders  were  certainly  of  the  cranial 
type  of  the  ancient  Mexicans  and  Peruvians,  and  thus 
of  the  cranial  type  of  all  the  natives  of  the  Pacific 
slope,  at  least  as  far  as  Sitka, — that  is,  brachycephalic. 
**  After  the  personal  comparison  of  Peruvian  skulls  with 
the  authentic  Mound-builde.  s'  skulls  from  Michigan 
and  Indiana,  and  others.  Ai^  dolmens  and  mounds  jn 
jQentral  Tennessee,  I  feel  confident,''  says  Winch  ell,' 
"  that  the  identity  of  the  race  of  Mound-builders  with 
the  races  of  Anahuac  and  Peru  will  become  generally 
recognized."  The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  after 
the  ablest  and  most  extensive  researches,  declares  that 
the  pre- Aztec  Mexicans  or  Toltecs  were  a  people  iden- 
tical with  the  Mound-builders.* 

»  Winchell,  p.  340 ;  alii.  »  P.  339. 

'  Gravier,  p.   231 ;  Gleeson,  vol.         *  Ap.  Baldwin,  Ancient  America, 
11.  pp.  315,  C23,  n.  1.  p.  201,  seq.,  and  Winchell,  p.  340. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


79 


Gleeson,^  with  laudable  national  pride,  claims  that 
the  Mound -builders  originated  in  Ireland ;  and  this 
theory,  as  we  may  be  convinced  fartEeFon^  is  as  likely 
as  any  that  may  be  proposed. 

Already  B.  S.  Barton  in  a.d.  1787  credited  the  Tol- 
tecs,  whom  he  considered  as  descendants  of  the  Danes^ 
but  who  were  more  probably  ^^cended  from  the  -[rish,.^ 
with  the  building  of  the  mounds.  De  Witt  Clinton, 
before  the  New  York  Historical  Society  in  the  year 
1811,  set  forth  some  theories  in  which  the  Scandina- 
vians figured  as  builders  of  the  mounds  in  that  State.* 
We  could  not,  however,  subscribe  to  either  one  s  as- 
sumption. In  spite  of  all  historical  data,  Gravier  ^  en- 
deavors to  prove  that  they  were  the  posterity  of  the 
Northmen  who  made  a  few  settlements  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent  in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century 
of  our  era  ! 

It  is  a  fact,  however,  that  the  great  resemblance  be- 
tween the  monuments  of  the  American  Mound-builders 
and  those  of  some  ancient  people  in  the  northwestern 
parts  of  Europe — as,  for  instance,  the_great_afii:pe»t- 
mound  of  Loch_N^l  in  Argyleshire  and  the  serpent- 
moun3s^  of  Wisconsin  and  Ohio — seems  to  establish  a 
relation  of  paternity  and  filiation  between  these  two 
nations.  C.  F.  Allen  *  states  that  the  race  of  the  Finns 
have  inhabited  the  northwest  of  Europe  before  the 
arrival  of  the  Gothic  tribes,  and  that  they  buried  their 
dead  in  vaults,  "  gravkamre/'  sometimes  covered  with 
huge  mounds  of  stone,  earth,  or  gravel,  and  always  fin-  1 
ished  with  a  layer  of  fertile  soil  and  a  fine  carpet  of  \ 
grass.  A  stone-masoned  tunnel  often  gave,  on  the 
eastern  side,  ready  access  to  the  tumuli.^ 


'  Vol.  ii.  p.  322,  seq. 
*  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  398. 
»  P,  234,  8eq. 


*  T.  i.  pp.  2,  3. 

'  Allen,   t.   i.   p.   3 ;  Gravier,   p. 


I  'i 


/! 


80 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUM 


The  burial-mouuds  which  exist  still  in  lumbers 

in  Ireland  have,  as  those  of  the  United  8  ^  the  shape 
of  truncated  pyramids  from  twelve  to  fifteen  feet  high, 
with  a  diameter  of  from  twelve  to  twenty-one  feet  at 
their  top.  In  Ireland,  as  here,  there  are  instances  of 
one  truncated  cone  being  built  upon  the  terrace  of  a 
larger  one  below.  These  tumuli  bear  still  the  significant 
name  of  Danish  Mounds,  and  are  evidently  coeval  with 
^elbrtificaliolIs'tlliHsignal-posts  which  in  some  parts 
of  the  island,  especially  in  the  county  Down,  are  so 
numerous  that  a  human  voice  could  almost  be  heard 
from  one  to  another.  Some  of  these  sepulchral  and 
other  similar  monuments  are  met  with  in  Denmark,  in 
the  midst  of  the  fields  or  on  the  top  of  natural  monti- 
cles,  with  their  ancient  base  still  surrounded  by  a  series 
of  huge  stone  blocks  which,  with  all  our  modern  appli- 
ances, it  would  i^.tard-io-xeoiaye.^  Their  form,  gener- 
ally circular,  "  Runddysser,"  is  elliptical  sometimes, 
"  Lian.g4ysser."  If^seemsTrnpossible  to  deny  that  they 
are  the  work^of  the  same  race  that  erected  the  grand 
monuments  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  valleys ;  ^ 
but  the  question  is,  where  these  works  were  executed 
first. 

Should  we  admit  the  principle  of  "Progress,"  we 
could  hardly  agree  with  some  authors  who  defend  the 
thesis  of  the  Mound-builders'  immigration  from  Europe, 
because  the  European  burial-mounds  bear  evident  fea- 
tures of  a  period  posterior  to  that  of  the  American  se- 
pulchral pyramids.  There  are,  it  is  true,  some  signs 
of  regular  burial-vaults  in  these  States ;  but  such  vaults 
still  exist,  in  a  relatively  perfect  state  of  preservation, 
on  the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe,  in  Denmark  es- 
pecially, constructed  of  huge  erratic  blocks  of  stone 

'  Gravier,  p.  233 ;  Allen,  t.  i.  p.  3 ;  Justin  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  83,  n.  5. 


a 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


81 


whose  inside  face  has  been  carefully  dressed  and  some- 
times adorned  with  engraven  designs  and  figures.  On 
these  walls,  forming  the  ceiling,  rest  one  or  more  flag- 
stones, not  seldom  of  enormous  size,  and  likewise 
smoothed  down  and  ornamented.  Besides  the  relics 
of  their  forgotten  heroes  they  contain  all  kinds  of 
utensils,  weapons,  and  finery,  occasionally  made  of 
silver  and  gold  with  surprising  art  and  skill.^ 

We  have  another  reason  to  think  that  the  Mound- 
builders'  voyages  across  the  Atlantic  were  rather  from 
west  to  east  than  in  the  opposite  direction,  because  it 
seems  hardly  probable  that  the  fatherland  of  this  civil- 
ized and  powerful  nation  should  have  been  confined  to 
a  few  and  insignificant  tracts  on  the  European  sea- 
board, while  its  colonies  should  have  worked  wonders 
all  over  the  surface  of  our  immense  Republic.  If  no 
monuments  west  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  attest  their 
immigration  from  Asia,  none  in  central  nor  in  eastern 
Europe  indicate  their  European  ancestry.  We  are  of 
the  opinion,  therefore,  that  the  Danish  mounds  are 
venerable  monuments  testifying  to  another  discovery 
and  partial  settlement  of  the  Old  World  by  an  Ameri- 
can nation.  We  shall,  farther  on,  find  occasion  to  sub- 
stantiate this  view  of  ours  by  the  positive  statements  of 
Plato  and  other  Greek  writers,  who  are  the  only  known 
historians  of  this  distant  American^period. 

The  Mound-builders  themselves  Itave  left  us  no 
written  record  of  their  passage  over  this  world,  and 
the  time  and  circumstances  of  their  disappearance  are 
involved  in  as  deep  a  mystery  as  those  of  their  first 
apparition.  Did  they,  as  all  ancient  historic  nations, 
sink  down  and  vanish  from  sight  under  the  weight  of 
their  impiety  and  of  the  crimes  that  tarnished   the 


I.— 6 


1  C.  F.  Allen,  t.  i.  pp.  3,  4 ;  Gravier,  p.  233. 


1 


m'l 


ffMl 


82 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


glitter  of  their  material  progress  ?  Were  they,  efFerai- 
nated  by  vice,  overrun  by  manly  barbarous  hordes,  as 
were  the  Assyrians,  the  Egyptians,  and  the  Romans  ? 
Colonel  J.  W.  Foster,  after  much  personal  study  of  this 
subject,  concluded  that  the  Mound-builders  were  ex- 
pelled from  the  Mississippi  valley  by  a  fierce  and  sav- 
age race  and  found  refuge  in  the  more  genial  climate  of 
Central  America.^ 

The  character  of  the  arborescent  vegetation,  says  the 
same  author,  found  covering  their  works  may  be  taken, 
to  some  extent  but  not  absolutely,  as  a  chronometric 
scale  in  estimating  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since 
their  abandonment.  Five  or  six  centuries,  he  tells  us, 
would  mark  the  extreme  age  of  trees  ordinarily  found 
growing  on  the  mounds  and  on  the  rubbish-heaps 
thrown  up  in  the  mining  operations.*^  He  urges,  how- 
ever, that  this  is  unreliable,  because  there  may  have 
been  several  generations  of  trees  of  the  same  or  even 
of  dilBfereut  species  succeeding  one  another  on  the 
mounds.     This  latter  hypothesis  is  highly  probable. 

That  their  religion  and  morality  were  relatively  pure 
at  one  time  is  sufficiently  established  by  their  material 
attainments  and  natural  science ;  for  history  as  well 
as  Holy  Scripture  ^  teaches  us  that  a  strong  religious 
conviction  in  accord  with  human  reason  ever  was  the 
foundation  of  material  and  mental  development.  Con- 
sidering the  remains  of  their  mounds,  that  were  likely 
built  for  religious  purposes.  Short*  states  that  their 
religion  seems  to  have  been  attended  with  the  same 
ceremonies  in  all  parts  of  their  domain,  and  that  its 
rites  were  celebrated  with  great  demonstrations  is  cer- 
tain, he  says. 

*  Prehistoric  Races  of  the  United        '  Prehistoric  Races,  pp.  371,  372. 
States,  pp.  350,  351,  ap.  Winchell,         *  Prov.  xiv.  34. 
p.  340.  *P.  98. 


pi 


PRE-CHRISTIAN    AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


83 


Foster  assures  us  that  the  Mound-builders  wor- 
shipped the  elements :  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  particu- 
larly the  fire.  They  erected,  he  says,  their  fire-altars 
for  sacrifice  on  the  highest  summits.  Like  the  Persian 
sun- worshippers,  they  undoubtedly  had  their  Magi, 
without  whose  presence  the  sacrifice  could  not  go  on. 
No  gifts  were  too  costly  to  be  offered  up.  The  most 
elaborately  carved  pipes,  precious  stones  brought  from 
a  distance,  and  garments  woven  with  patient  toil  were 
freely  condemned  to  undergo  the  ordeal  of  fire.  But 
this  is  not  all.  The  numerous  reliquiae  of  charred 
bones  leave  behind  the  terrible  conviction  that  on  these 
occasions  human  victims  were  offered  up  as  an  accepta- 
ble sacrifice  to  the  elements.^  We  might  ask,  however, 
whether  the  charred  relics  were  not  rather  remnants  of 
cremated  corpses. 

We  have  noticed  before  that  in  a  few  burial-mounds 
we  find  proof  of  incineration  of  the  dead,  a  fact  which 
some  might  construe  to  signify  that  the  Mound-builders 
did  not  believe  in  a  future  life  nor  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  body  ;  but  it  ought  to  be  remarked  that  crema- 
tion was  an  exceptional  way  of  disposing  of  the  corpses, 
which  were  usually  buried,  both  in  the  United  States 
and  on  the  European  coasts,  with  the  greatest  care, 
sometimes  in  sacred  earth  brought  from  a  distance. 
Thousands  of  the  Mound-builders'  skeletons  have  been 
found,  some  of  them  in  a  sitting  posture,  others  lying 
down,  surrounded  by  huge  protecting  stones,  and  ac- 
companied by  precious,  artistically  made  ornaments 
and  vases  of  various  shapes.'^  It  is  doubtful  whether 
these  vessels  contained  food  and  drink  for  the  deceased 
on  their  journey  to  eternity ;  but  from  the  very  cir- 
cumstances that  accompanied   the  burials  themselves. 


1  V, 


Foster,  p.  182. 


»  Nadaillac,  p.  95 ;  C.  F.  Allen,  t. 
i.  p.  4. 


84 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  left  but  that  this  race  still 
knew  the  truths  of  man's  future  life,  of  his  moral 
responsibility  for  his  past  actions,  and  of  his  eventual 
resurrection. 

Should  the  Mound-builders  have  been  the  Ameri- 
can nation  described  by  Plato,  we  would  find  in  his 
"  Timceus"  and  his  "  Critias"  more  ample  information 
regarding  their  religion  and  consequent  degree  of  civil- 
ization. But,  before  listening  to  the  ancient  historian 
and  philosopher,  we  deem  it  our  duty  to  record  a  few 
more  arch  geological  data  bearing  upon  the  memory  of 
other  prehistoric  and  now  apparently  extinct  American 
peoples. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN   NATIONS. 

The  races  of  which  we  have  spoken  so  far  flourished 
and  vanished  in  pre-Christian  times ;  but  another  na- 
tion that  now  lies  buried  under  the  roots  of  Central 
American  impenetrable  forests  may  have  endured  till 
the  first  centuries  of  our  era.^  Its  beginnings,  however, 
may  well  outrank  those  of  the  Mound-builders  of  the 
United  States.  Bancroft '^justly  remarks,  "The  mon- 
uments of  the  Mississ  ppi  present  stronger  internal  evi- 
dence of  great  antiquity  than  any  others  in  America, 
although  it  by  no  means  follows  that  they  are  older 
than  Palenque  and  Copan ;"  and  he  is  more  explicit 
when  he  says,^  "The  oldest  civilization  in  America 
which  has  left  any  traces  for  our  consideration,  what- 
ever may  have  been  its  prehistoric  origin,  was  that  in 
the  Usuraacinta  region,  represented  by  the  Palenque 
group  of  ruins." 

The  grand  and  imposing  relics  of  the  once  power- 
ful Maya  nation,  which  were  altogether  unknown  to 
the  Spanish  conquerors,  have  attracted  the  passionate 
study  of  modern  antiquarians  and  argue  a  higher  civ- 
ilization than  anything  yet  found  on  the  American 
continent.* 

In  Central  America,  especially  in  the  peninsula  of 
Yucatan,  there  are  extensive  regions  covered  with  giant 
trees  p'  u  thick  underbrush,  where  no  one  could  at  first 


\ 


'  Cf.  Mercer,  p.  55. 
» Vol.  V.  p.  168,  n.  17. 
»  Vol.  V.  p.  168. 


*  Prescott,   Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  389. 

86 


86 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


m, 


Ml 


have  surmised  the  existeuce  of  a  single  human  trace. 
Yet  researchers,  as  courageous  as  learned,  have,  axe  in 
hand,  cut  a  path  through  the  thickets,  to  run  across 
immen.se  ruins  of  cities,  temples,  palaces,  villas ;  to  fol- 
low long-lost  roads  over  bridges  and  under  aqueducts, 
and  to  become  the  wondering  witnesses  of  the  monu- 
ments, as  gigantic  as  artistic,  of  a  race  that  deserves  i*\\ 
our  attention.^  The  principal  discoveries  were  made 
at  the  places  now  called  Palenque,  Copan,  Itzalana  or 
Uxmal,  Lorillard  City,  and  Chichen-Itza.  Other  pre- 
historic cities  of  the  same  country  and  the  delight  of 
antiquaries  and  artists  are  Mitla,  Izamal,  Ake,  Kabah, 
Acanceh,  Quirigua,  Toloom,  and  Ococingo.  The  ruins 
of  the  first  of  these  cities  are  scattered  over  a  surface 
six  miles  in  length. 

The  data  on  which  to  rest  our  conjectures  of  their 
age  are  not  very  substantial,  says  Prescott,  although 
some  writers  find  in  them  a  warrant  for  an  antiquity 
of  thousands  of  years,  coeval  with  the  architecture  of 
Egypt  and  Hindoostan.  There  are  undoubted  proofs  of 
considerable  age  to  be  found  there.  Trees  have  shot  up 
in  the  midst  of  the  buildings  which  measure,  it  is  said, 
more  than  nine  feet  in  diameter.  Waldeck  counted 
one  ring  of  growth  a  year,  to  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  Palenque  was  abandoned  two  thousand  years  ago, 
A  still  more  striking  fact  is  the  accumulation  of  vege- 
table mould  in  one  of  the  courts  to  the  depth  of  nine 
feet  above  the  pavement.  Another  evidence  of  their 
age  is  aiforded  by  the  circumstance  that  in  one  of  the 
courts  of  Uxmal  the  granite  pavement,  on  which  the 
figures  of  tortoises  were  raised  in  relief,  is  worn  nearly 
•smooth  by  the  feet  of  the  crowds  that  have  passed  over 
it.     Lastly,  we  have  authority  for  carrying  back  the 

'  Jou88et,  in  Congr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  111. 


V    i 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


87 


date  of  some  of  these  ruins  to  a  distant  period,  be- 
cause they  were  found  in  deserted  places  and  in  a 
diUipitated  state  by  the  first  Spaniards  who  entered 
the  country.^ 

Tlie  antiquity  of  the  Mayas  should  not,  however,  be 
exaggerated.  Mr.  Mercer  states  that  "  the  people  re- 
vealed in  the  caves  of  Yucatan  had  reached  the  coun- 
try in  geologically  recent  times."  '^ 

This  same  learned  archreologist  makes  another  re- 
mark, as  interesting  as  it  is  likely,  even  from  general 
data,  when,  drawing  a  conclusion  from  his  own  per- 
sonal researches  in  the  caves  of  Yucatan,  he  says 
that,  "  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  that  peninsula,  sub- 
stantially the  ancestors  of  the  present  Maya  Indians, 
had  not  developed  their  culture  in  Yucatan,  but  had 
brought  it  with  them  from  somewhere  else.""' 

A  comparative  study  of  their  monuments  will  soon 
further  establish  the  truth  of  that  assertion. 

A  satisfactory  description  of  the  most  interesting 
Maya  monuments  would  fill  volumes,  and  we  feel  com- 
pelled to  refer  inquisitive  readers  to  other  works  whose 
special  subject  they  form,  such  as  those  of  Lord  Kings- 
borough,*  of  Charney  and  Violet-le-Duc,'^  and  of  the 
Marquis  de  Nadaillac,*'  contenting  ourselves  with  a  mere 
sketch  of  their  principal  features.  The  Mayas  gener- 
ally erected  their  edifices  on  the  summit  of  artificial 
mounds  or  monticles,  some  of  which  were  no  less  than 
two  hundred  feet  high ;  and  used  in  their  erection 
either  enormous  accurately  squared  stones,  carefully 
fitted  by  the  side  and  on  the  top  of  one  another,  or  a 
mixture  of  boulders,  earth,  and  gravel,  encased  within 


'  Qiiiquost.  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  pp. 
394,  [\m. 
«  Hill-Caves  of  Yucutaii,  p.  177. 
•Ibid. 


*  Mexican  Antiquities. 

'  VHi6H  ot  Unine*^  An><^ricnine8, 

•  Prehistoric  America. 


88 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


11 : 


J-" 


Cyclopean  superimposed  flags  of  stone,  or  veritable 
walls  of  still  enduring  sun-burnt  bricks.  Both  facings 
were  overlaid  with  line  stucco  painted  in  divers  colors, 
and  on  some  of  them  we  still  find  no  mean  represen- 
tations of  battles,  hunting  parties,  and  religious  cere- 
monies. Sculptures  of  granite  and  porphyry  abound 
everywhere,  remarkable  no  less  for  their  grandeur  of 
conception  than  for  their  accuracy  of  design  and  execu- 
tion, serving  either  as  pilasters  or  as  ornaments  of  cap- 
itals and  portals.  Hieroglyphics  finely  chiselled  into 
the  hardest  kind  of  rock  cover  part  of  the  walls.  Who 
has  not  heard  of  the  famous  "  Temple  of  the  Cross"  of 
Palenque,  where  a  Latin  cross,  surmounted  by  a  fan- 
tastic bird,  is  the  recipient  of  the  adoration  and  oblation 
of  two  personages  on  either  side,  presumably  priests 
in  the  act  of  Christian  worship?  Another  group  of 
statues  almost  identical  with  the  former  has  been  dis- 
coveied  in  a  sanctuary  near  Palenque.  Are  these  last 
monuments  a  proof  that  Christianity  was  preached  to 
the  Mayas?  We  will  examine  this  question  farther 
on  ;  but  no  one  will  dispute  the  assertion  that  all  these 
monuments,  important  relics  of  which  are  to  be  seen 
in  the  Smithsonian  and  other  museums,  are  sufiicient 
evidence  of  the  high  and  wonderful  civilization  of 
this  prehistoric  American  race,  in  no  way  inferior  to 
tliat  of  the  ancient  Assyrians,  Egyptians,  or  pagan 
Romans.^ 

It  is  highly  probable  that  their  mental  progress  was 
not  surpassed  by  their  arts  and  natural  philosophy ; 
but  another  Champollion-Figeac  is  wanted  still  to  give 
us  an  idea  of  their  hieroglyphic  literature.  Nothing 
else  is  known  of  their  writing  than  that  it  is  of  Asiatic 
origin  and  nowhere  to  be  found  on  American  soil  with 


I 


*  Cf.  JouBset,  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp.  111-113. 


OTHER   ANCIENT   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


89 


«! 


nations  of  that  or  of  any  earlier  period.  On  a  specimen 
presented  by  Nadaillac  we  notice  three  "  <aws,"  perfectly 
similar  to  the  T  of  the  Egyptian  obelisk  of  the  Place 
de  la  Concorde  in  Paris.^ 

This  particular  affords  the  first  clue  to  the  western 
origin  of  the  brilliant  Maya  race,  and  the  characteristics 
of  their  monuments  are  so  strikingly  like  to  those  of 
ancient  public  edifices  in  southern  Asia  and  Polynesia 
that  they  amply  justify  the  assertion  that  the  mysterious 
architects  of  Yucatan  were  relatives  of  those  who  erected 
the  majestic  buildings  whose  ruins  still  strike  with  awe 
the  modern  explorers  of  the  East  Indies,  of  Java,  and 
of  all  Polynesia  as  far  as  Easter  Island.  The  great 
temple  of  Palenque  is  but  a  copy  of  that  of  Boro- 
Boudor  in  the  island  of  Java.^ 

Mr.  Stephens  ^  ascribes  the  Central  American  ruins 
to  the  Toltecs,  simply  because  they  are  the  oldest  nation 
on  the  continent  of  America  of  which  we  have  any 
special  knowledge ;  but  he  admits  that,  from  a  study  of 
the  ruins  themselves,  he  would  have  assigned  the  foun- 
dation of  the  cities  to  a  much  more  remote  epoch.  In 
fact,  the  monuments  of  Central  America  are  not  only 
different  from,  but  evidently  more  ancient  than,  those 
of  Mexico,  and  cannot  possibly  have  been  built  by  the 
Toltecs  after  their  migration  from  Anahuac  in  the 
eleventh  century. 

Prescott  says*  that  the  traveller  now  speculates  on 
the  majestic  ruins  of  Mitla  and  Palenque  as  possibly 
the  work  of  the  Toltecs  of  Mexico ;  but  his  editor  justly 
remarks  that  such  an  opinion,  quite  tenable  at  the  time 
that  Prescott  wrote,  can  be  sustained  no  longer.  It 
was  founded  on  the  statements  of  some  early  writers 


'  Congrts  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  113. 
'Ibid.,  p.  112;    Nadaillac,   Pre- 
historic America,  p.  323,  n. 


'  Yucatan,  vol.  ii.  p.  454,  seq. 
*  Conqueet  of  Mexico,  vol.  i. 


14. 


■ 


!< 


■: 


90 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


and  partially  supported  by  the  conclusions  of  Stephens, 
who  believed  that  the  ruined  cities  of  Oaxaca,  Chiapa, 
Yucatan,  and  Guatemala  dated  from  a  comparatively  re- 
cent period,  and,  in  spite  of  all  records,  were  still  flour- 
ishing at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest.^  But  these 
suppositions  have  been  refuted  by  later  investigators. 
"  The  traditions  as  well  as  the  monuments  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America,"  says  Foster,  "  indicate  that  there 
was  an  older  civilization,  and  of  a  higher  order  than  that 
attained  by  the  Aztecs.  The  older  ruins  show  a  refined 
skill  which  was  not  attained  in  those  of  a  modern  date  ; 
and  the  picture-writing  on  the  Aztec  monuments  fails 
to  interpret  the  inscriptions  of  Palenque  and  Copan."  ^ 
Mr.  Tylor  ^  attributes  the  Central  American  cities  to  a 
people  who  flourished  long  before  the  Toltecs,  and 
whose  descendants  are  the  Mayas.  Hellwald*  pro- 
nounces the  Palenque  culture  the  oldest  in  America 
and  with  no  resemblance  to  that  of  the  Mexicans.  He 
rejects  the  theory  that  the  Yucatan  ruins  had  their 
origin  in  the  work  of  migrating  Toltecs.^  Orozco  y 
Berra,  in  an  elaborate  and  satisfactory  examination  of 
the  question,  discusses  all  the  evidence  relating  to  it, 
compares  the  remains  in  the  southern  provinces  with 
those  of  the  valley  of  Mexico,  points  out  the  essential 
differences  in  the  architecture,  sculpture,  and  inscrip- 
tions, and  arrives  at  the  conclusion,  now  generally  ad- 
mitted, that  there  was  no  point  of  contact  for  resem- 
blance between  the  two  civilizations.  He  considers  that 
of  the  southern  provinces,  though  "  of  a  far  higher 
grade,"  as  "  long  anterior"  in  time  to  the  Toltec  domi- 
nation, as  the  work  of  a  people  that  had  passed  away 


•  Incidents  of  Travel  in  Central 
America. 
»  Foster,  pp.  340,  341. 
'  Anahuac,  p.  189,  seq. 


*  Smithsonian  Report,  1866,  p. 
340. 

•Bancroft,  vol.  v.  pp.  167-169, 
and  n. 


OTHER   ANCIENT   AMERICAN   NATIONS. 


91 


under  the  assaults  of  barbarism  at  a  period  prior  to  all 
traditions,  leaving  no  name  and  no  trace  of  their  exist- 
ence, save  those  monuments  which,  neglected  and  for- 
gotten by  their  successors,  have  become  the  riddle  of 
later  generations/ 

We  do  not  wish  to  anticipate  the  great  question  of 
American  immigrations,  which  we  intend  to  treat  far- 
ther on  ;  but  it  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  remark 
that  in  the  year  1883  the  grave  historian,  F.  A.  Allen,*^ 
read  before  the  Congress  of  Americanistes  a  learned 
memoir  entitled  "  Polynesian  Antiquities,  a  Link  be- 
tween the  Ancient  Civilizations  of  Asia  and  America," 
in  which  he  exhibits  the  many  analogies  of  monuments, 
etc.,  between  southeastern  Asia,  Peru,  and  the  inter- 
vening Polynesian  islands.  He  observes  that  Easter 
Island  rises  from  the  Southern  Pacific  at  two  thousand 
five  hundred  miles  due  west  of  Valparaiso,  Chili,  and 
only  two  small  islands  are  found  within  a  radius  of 
one  thousand  miles  of  the  former ;  and  yet  these  soli- 
tary, insignificant  outcroppings  from  the  ocean  are 
covered  with  cyclopean  ruins  of  monuments  and  sculp- 
tures ;  some  of  the  gigantic,  well-chiselled  statues  being 
erect  on  their  pedestals  yet,  and,  while  evidently  not 
the  work  of  the  fallen  and  degraded  natives  that  now 
inhabit  those  parts,  evidencing  an  antiquity  no  less  than 
that  of  the  ruins  found  in  Uxmal,  Lorillard  City,  and 
Palenque,  with  which  they  agree  in  all  their  principal 
features.  If  civilized  or  semi-civilized  nations  have 
reached  the  solitary  dry  spots  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  rela- 
tively near  the  American  western  coast,  why  should 
they  not  have  had  the  means  of  sailing  a  little  farther 
in  the  same  direction  ? 


M 


' » 


^ 
A 


r 


*  Greografia  de  las  I^ngiiafi  de 
Mexico,  pp.  122-131;  cf.  Tylor, 
Anahuac,  p.  189,  seq. 


'  Congr^B    des    Am^ricanietes    i 
Copenhagiie,  1883,  p.  246. 


92 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Jousset  ^  finds  further  proofs  of  the  Asiatic  origin  of 
the  Maya  nation  in  special  works  of  art  which  they 
left  us  at  Uxmal,  where  elephants'  trunks  are  repre- 
sented in  bass-relief,  although  this  animal  was  Asiatic 
and  altogether  unknown  in  America  in  recent  geo- 
logical times.  Sculptures  of  the  kind,  therefore,  on 
Yucatan  soil  must  needs  have  had  their  type  in  trans- 
Pacific  Ocean  souvenirs.  An  argument  of  the  same 
nature  is  suggested  by  a  small  bronze  statue  sitting  on 
a  turtle  of  an  Asiatic  species,  while  its  hands  rest  on 
an  inscription  in  the  Chinese  language. 

The  same  learned  author  finally  tries  to  establish  cer- 
tain analogies  between  the  most  ancient  Central  Ameri- 
can religion  and  that  of  Asiatic  peoples ;  but  we  must 
confess  that  our  information  in  regard  to  the  religious 
rites  of  the  Mayas  is  extremely  deficient.  That  they 
worshipped  in  large  and  costly  edifices  there  is  no  doubt ; 
their  statuary  demonstrates  that  they  had  altars  for 
sacrifice,  that  they  made  oblations  and  offered  prayers 
to  a  supernatural  being ;  nay,  many  of  the  learned  are 
of  the  opinion  that  they  worshipped,  as  Christians,  the 
saving  cross  of  Christ,  while  others  think,  from  the 
shape  of  certain  statues,  that  the  cultus  of  Buddha  was 
not  unknown  to  them.^  In  what  their  sacrifices  con- 
sisted does  not  appear  from  their  relics,  which,  indeed, 
may  suggest  the  idea  that  they  dedicated  their  children 
to  the  Supreme  Being,  as  did  the  Jews  and  as  the 
Christians  still  do,  to  devote  them  to  his  faithful  ser- 
vice and  place  them  under  his  special  protection ;  but 
there  are  no  proofs  of  their  offerin;^;  any  but  legiti- 
mate sacrifices  of  flowers,  fruits,  and  animals,  as  Abel 
and  Cain  offered  in  the  beginnings  of  the  human 
family.^ 


f 


'  Congrts   Scient.,    viii.    sec.    p. 
112. 


» Ibid.,  pp.  112,  114. 
'  Gen.  iv. 


>  ii: 


^ 


^  e/  (?•»" 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


93 


Votan,  deified  by  the  Chiapans,  seems  to  have  been 
the  leader  of  eivilized  ancestors  ef  the  Mayas,  or  their 
religious  teacher  and  civilizer.  The  necessary  analo- 
gies existing  between  him  and  Quetzalcoatl,  the  Toltec 
apostle,  have  caused  some  authors  to  confound  into  one 
the  ancient  hero  and  the  relatively  modern  religious 
reformer.  From  the  confused  tradition  of  the  Tzendals, 
as  rendered  by  Nufiez  de  la  Vega  and  Ordofiez  y  Aguiar, 
it  appears  that  Votan  proceeded  by  divine  command  to 
America,  and  there  portioned  out  the  land,  or  laid  the 
foundation  of  civilization — a  view  also  taken  by  Clavi- 
gero.^  He  accordingly  departed  from  Valum  Chivim, 
or  Phoenicia,  according  to  Cabrera,  passed  by  the 
dwelling  of  the  Thirteen  Snakes,  or  the  islands  of  the 
Canary  group  and  San  Domingo,^  and  arrived  at 
Valum  Votap,  where  he  took  with  him  several  of  his 
family,  to  form  the  nucleus  of  the  settlement.  With 
them  he  passed  through  the  island-strewn  Laguna  de 
Terminos,  ascended  the  Usumacinta,  and  here,  on  one 
of  its  tributaries,  founded  Nachan  or  Palenque,  the 
future  metropolis  of  a  mighty  kingdom  and  one  of  the 
reputed  cradles  of  American  civilization.  The  Tzendal 
inhabitants  bestowed  upon  the  strange-looking  new- 
comers the  name  of  Tzequiles,  petticoats,  on  account 
of  their  long  robes,  but  soon  exchanged  ideas  and  cus- 
toms with  them,  submitted  to  their  rule,  and  gave  them 
their  daughters  in  marriage.  This  event  is  laid  a  thou- 
sand years  before  Christ,  a  date  which  is  confirmed  by 
the  Chimalpopoca  manuscript,  according  to  Brasseur 
de  Bourbourg  in  his  "  Popol  Vuh,"  p.  Ixxxyni/' 

The  fact  that  Latin  crosses  have  Ibeen  discovered 
among  the  ruins  of  Palenque  and  statues  of  Buddha 


J 


/ 


*  Storia  Ant.  del  Mesaico,  t.  i.  p. 
150. 


'  Miiller,  Amerik.  Urrelig.,  S.  489. 
»  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  462. 


.  .■  jAur'^  ,  ,   ■■fc...     J-|.^..^  ..     . 


94 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


11 


i 

J  ' 


among  those  of  UxraaP  is  quite  puzzling  for  an  in- 
quirer into  the  Mayas'  religion ;  but  in  our  opinion  it 
affords  some  precious  information  regarding  the  epoch 
in  which  the  Maya  civilization  was  either  buried  under 
the  effects  and  shame  of  its  own  degradation,  or,  more 
probably,  under  the  vandal  destruction  of  its  grand 
achievements  by  barbarian  invaders. 

Did  the  Mayas  endure  to  listen  to  the  Christian 
teachings  probably  given  by  the  Apostle  St.  Thomas  or 
any  of  his  disciples  in  America  ?  Was  their  empire  of 
Xibalba  still  in  existence  when,  as  pretended,  a  band  of 
Buddhist  missionaries  expounded  their  mongrel  doc- 
trines in  Fu  Sang  during  the  second  half  of  the  fifth 
Christian  century,  or  had  they  not  fallen  yet  under  the 
tomahawks  and  arrows  of  invading  northern  tribes  at 
the  time  that  the  Irish  prelate  St.  Brendan  and  his  com- 
panions preached  in  the  Land  of  the  Blessed  ?  These 
questions  reach  beyond  historical  certainty,  and  all  we 
can  do  for  the  present  is  to  promise  that  in  the  proper 
place  we  shall  try  to  remove  the  veil  that  intercepts 
the  twilight  which  tradition  and  history  may  cast  upon 
them. 

Before  proceeding  farther  we  should  express  a  doubt, 
— namely,  whether  the  Mayas,  who  seem  to  have  immi- 
grated by  the  way  of  Polynesia,  did  not  also  cross  the 
chain  of  the  Andes  and  establish  flourishing  common- 
wealths in  the  central  and  the  eastern  parts  of  South 
America.  This  opinion  is  certainly  not  devoid  of  prob- 
abilities to  one  who  notices  the  late  researches  made  in 
the  great  necropoles  of  the  Ancon  and  in  the  trenches 
along  the  Amazon  and  the  Tocantins  Rivers,  especially 
on  the  Marrajo  or  Joannes  Island.  The  discoveries 
there  made  clearly  point  to  a  race  diU'erent  from  that 

'  Congrfe  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  112  ;  ref.  to  Dictionnaire Larousse,  p.  1363, 8eq. 


m 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


95 


of  the  modern  aborigines,  and  which  had  attained  an 
advanced  degree  of  civilization.  The  results  obtained 
from  systematic  excavations  do  not,  however,  justify 
any  precise  conclusions  yet.^ 

Equally  scanty  is  the  information  which  we  possess 
in  regard  to  the  history  of  two  more  prehistoric  Amer- 
ican races,  of  which,  however,  we  can  speak  in  a  more 
positive  manner,  because  on  the  ruins  of  their  ancient 
monuments  we  find  until  this  day  a  few  living  remnants 
of  their  progeny. 

The  Cliff  Dwellers  and  the  Pueblo  Indians  are  often 
confounded  into  one  and  the  same  nation,  yet  generally 
admitted  to  be  absolutely  distinct  from  the  races  that 
we  have  considered  before,  and  from  the  Nahuas  that 
will  claim  our  attention  hereafter. 

Both  the  Pueblos  and  the  Cliff  Dwellers  lived  in 
close  community,  not  to  say  in  communism,  holding 
the  land  as  common  property  and  allowing  to  each 
individual  for  personal  use  the  fruit  only  of  each 
individual's  personal  industry  and  labor.^ 

The  remains  of  their  habitations  are  to  be  found 
in  the  States  of  Utah,  New  Mexico,  and  Arizona,^  in 
the  Mexican  province  of  Sonora,  and  as  far  south  as 
northern  Chihuahua;  nay,  some  antiquarians  believe 
to  have  discovered  their  vestiges  in  the  Peruvian 
republic* 

The  steep  sides  of  the  Rio  Mancos  and  Rio  Pecos, 
of  the  San  Juan,  the  Hovenweep,  the  McElmo,  and 
Rio  Chelly  are  studded  with  cliff-dwellings.®  The 
adjoining  mountains  rise  to  a  height  of  six  thousand 


liii 

-I 

!i  ill 


\: 


»  Boletfn,  t.  xxi.  p.  222. 

'  Congr&j  Scient,  viii.  sec.  p.  116. 

8  Cronau,  S.  47-58. 

*  Jousaet,  in  Congr^B  Scient. , 
viii.  sec.  p.  116 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  v. 
p.  537 ;  alii. 


*  The  canyons  of  the  Verde  Val- 
ley, in  Arizona,  were  explored  in 
the  year  1890  by  an  expedition 
sent  by  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion. 


irM 


96 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


five  hundred  feet  above  the  valley.  The  rock  has  been 
pierced  everywhere — man  has  everywhere  established 
his  home — and  the  number  of  cliff-houses  here  is  esti- 
mated at  over  one  thousand. 

The  appellation  of  Cliff*  Dwellers  is  derived  from  the 
location  of  their  fortifications  and  dwellings, — on  the 
narrow  projections  and  in  the  hollows  and  crevices  of 
almost  perpendicular  cliffs,  at  giddy  heights  above 
narrow  canyons  and  abysses  below.  There  all  pro- 
truding rocks  and  clefts  were  utilized,  as  foundations 
and  roofs,  as  halls  and  rooms  of  either  separate  habi- 
tations or  of  a  one-housed  city,  built  of  receding  super 
posed  stories,  that  communicated  with  one  another  by 
ladders  or  natural  rough  stepping-stones. 

The  Rio  Mancos  flows  between  cliffs  formed  of 
alternate  beds  of  chalky  limestone  and  clayey  deposit 
often  hollowed  by  the  waters.  In  one  of  these  exca- 
vations we  find  a  group  of  human  abodes  comprising 
a  double  line  of  buildings,  constructed  at  a  height  of 
about  two  hundred  feet  above  the  river.  The  lower 
buildings  extend  along  a  space  sixty  feet  long  by  fifteen 
at  its  widest  part.  The  walls  are  about  a  foot  thick 
and  in  a  line  with  the  precipice ;  they  are  truly  as- 
tonishing. In  the  centre  we  find  the  inevitable  so- 
called  "  estufa"  or  round  chamber,  which  was  either  a 
council-hall  or  a  place  of  worship.  As  far  as  we  can 
judge  at  present,  the  sole  means  of  entrance  was  by  a 
single  aperture  of  twenty-two  by  thirty  inches,  and 
even  this  could  be  reached  only  by  crawling  for  thirty 
feet  along  a  perfect  gut  in  the  rock.  The  partition 
walls  dividing  the  chambers  did  not  quite  reach  the 
overhanging  rock,  so  that  communication  between  the 
chambers  might  be  made  by  means  of  ladders. 

The  rock  between  the  two  series  of  constructions  is 
almost  vertical.     At  one  place,  where  the  declivity  is  a 


I 


OTHER    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


97 


/ 


little  less  abrupt,  is  to  be  found  something  like  imper- 
fectly cut  steps,  which  would  be  of  small  assistance  as 
a  means  of  ascent  to  people  of  our  time. 

On  the  upper  row  another  ledge  has  permitted  the 
building  of  another  construction.  This  second  plat- 
form would  be  about  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  in 
length  and  ten  in  its  greatest  width ;  but  it  seems 
that  these  works  were  never  entirely  finished.  Doubt- 
less the  Cliff-  and  Cave  Dwellers  were  discouraged  by 
the  almost  insurmountable  difficulty  of  getting  up  the 
material. 

The  finished  parts  have  been  inhabited,  and  the  cham- 
bers communicated  with  one  another  by  low,  narrow 
openings. 

A  mile  farther  on,  still  on  the  banks  of  the  Rio 
Mancos,  Mr.  Jackson  discovered  a  habitation  at  a 
height  of  seven  hundred  feet.  This  construction, 
which  he  calls  the  "  two-story  house,"  is  in  a  better 
state  of  preservation  than  those  surrounding  it.  The 
walls  are  twelve  feet  high,  with  an  open  space  of  from 
two  to  three  feet  between  the  top  and  the  rock  forming 
the  roof.  One  of  the  chambers  is  nine  by  ten  feet ; 
another  six  feet  square,  others  less.^ 

The  narrow  trail  creeping  up  from  the  deep  ravine 
along  the  mountain  brink  was  at  intervals  guarded  by 
strongly  built  watch-towers,  which  give  evidence,  as 
well  as  the  location  itself,  that  the  inhabitants  were  of 
a  retiring,  peaceful  nature,  ever  in  danger  of  being  over- 
taken by  powerful  and  warlike  neighbors. 

Researches  among  the  ruins  of  their  ancient  abodes 
afford  some  interesting  particulars  regarding  their  mode 
of  life  and  occupations.  They  were  farmers,  raising 
corn,  haricot,  beans,  gourds,  and  probably  cotton  on 


IT 


*  Nadaillac,  in  Donahoe's  Magazine,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  669,  aeq. 


98 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I 
V 


their  elevated  tuble-luiul  and  sloping  mountain-sides, 
where  traces  of  scanty  terraces  can  yet  be  seen.  Corn 
is  frequently  found,  sometimes  still  on  the  cob,  some- 
times shelled  off  and  stored  in  jars,  while  corn-cobs  and 
corn-husks  are  scattered  everywhere  among  the  rub- 
bish. The  beans  and  gourds  are  less  abundant,  and 
the  seeds  of  the  latter  were  carefully  preserved.  The 
only  farming  implements  discovered  are  those  of  the 
Peruvian  primitive  agriculturists, — stout  sticks,  pointed 
or  flattened  at  one  end,  besides  stone  hoes  about  a  foot 
long. 

A  variety  of  sandals  and  other  footgear  has  been 
found,  some  being  woven  of  yucca  leaves,  some  braided 
of  vegetable  fibres,  some  rudely  constructed  of  corn- 
husks.  Portions  of  hide  jackets,  fur  caps,  blankets 
made  of  feathers  tied  to  a  coarse  net  of  cord,  give 
evidence  of  their  hunting  excursions  and  domestic  in- 
dustries. Pieces  of  pottery  of  all  sizes  and  of  various 
degrees  of  fineness  are  found  in  every  direction.  Na- 
daillac  says,^  "  This  pottery,  though  exposed  probably 
for  centuries  to  the  inclemency  of  the  seasons,  has 
undergone  little  or  no  deterioration.  As  a  rule,  the 
Cliff  Dwellers'  is  far  superior  to  the  Mound-builders' 
pottery."  ^  Putnam  adds  that  it  is  equally  superior  to 
the  work  done  in  the  country  to-day.  It  is  made  of 
the  very  fine  clay  which  abounds  in  the  region.  To 
give  it  consistency  it  was  mixed  with  a  little  sand,  pul- 
verized shells,  and  lu;.aps  of  earth  burned  and  ground. 
The  potter  often  cut  thin  strips  of  kneaded  claj'^  and 
laid  them  on  over  the  vessel,  moulding  them  into  the 
desired  forms  with  his  hands.  Some  of  the  potteries 
are  shaped  after  the  human  outline,  and  more  fre- 
quently as  animals,  such  as  the  deer,  the  stag,  and  the 


^  In  Donahoe's   Magazine,    vol. 
XXXV.  p.  676. 


'  Here  we   may,  however,    dis- 
agree with  him. 


OTIIKK    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONH. 


99 


frog.  On  tlie  InuikH  of  the  Gila  River  a  fragment  was 
found  of  a  vase  which  the  artist  had  fashioned  as  a 
tortoise,  and  another  representing  a  monkey.  Birds 
on  pottery  are  eHjiecially  numerous.  If  tlie  duck 
seems  to  have  heen  the  favorite  model  of  the  Mound- 
builders,  the  owl  was  frequently  the  pattern  of  the 
sha})es  and  decorations  of  the  Cliff'  Dwellers'  earthen- 
ware. 

That  the  Cliff*  Dwellers  were  particularly  skilled  in 
architecture  and  masonry  is  abundantly  proved  by  the 
well-shaped  and  finished  stones  of  their  edifices,  by  the 
trim  walls  hung  upon  steep-sloping  rock  surfaces,  sheer 
at  the  edges  of  cliffs,  where  they  rest  to-day,  still  firm 
and  secure.  The  mortar,  made  of  clay  and  ashes,  hard 
still,  was  skilfully  laid  between  the  tiers  of  larger  rocks 
and  tastefully  studded  with  smaller  stones  and  pebbles, 
which  greatly  contribute  to  the  solidity  of,  and  give  a 
pleasant  appearance  to,  the  walls. 

Like  our  Red  Skins  of  modern  times,  the  Cliff^ 
Dwellers  adorned  their  clothes  with  small  shells  and 
teeth  and  small  bones  of  animals;  .they  also  wore 
strings  of  beads  and  perforated  fragments  of  pottery. 

The  bodies  of  the  dead  were  laid  away,  together  with 
provisions  of  clothing  and  food,  with  weapons,  utensils, 
and  ornaments,  and  some  of  them  embalmed  so  well 
that  the  mummified  remains  still  show  plainly  enough 
the  dark  color  of  the  nation.  The  recent  explorations, 
under  the  direction  of  Professor  Putnam,  have  brought 
to  light  a  small  number  of  mummies  in  a  fair  state  of 
preservation.  The  bodies  were  found  wrapped  in  cotton 
cloths,  skins,  and  feather  ornaments,  over  which  were 
rolled  mats  formed  of  rods  strung  together,  somewhat 
resembling  Chinese  blinds.  Many  of  them  had  fine, 
silky,  light-colored  hair,  very  different  from  the  dark, 
stiff*,  and  coarse  hair  of  our  Indians.     Their  skulls  are 


100       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


brachycephalic,  with  the  occipital  flattening,  made  arti- 
ficiall}'^  during  infancy,  very  marked. 

Like  the  Mound-builders  and  all  the  primitive 
peoples  of  America,  the  Cliff'  Dwellers  died  in  the  hope 
of  a  future  life,  and  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  find  in  them 
this  instinct  so  deeply  graven  in  the  hearts  of  men  of 
all  times  and  of  all  countries. 

Lieutenant  Schwatka,  detailed  to  explore  unknown 
regions  of  New  Mexico,  recently  came  across  several 
families  dwelling  in  caverns  excavated  in  sandy  por- 
tions of  rocky  mountains  at  considerable  altitudes.  The 
poor  natives  were  very  timid,  and,  frightened  at  the 
appearance  of  the  explorers,  they  hurried  up  to  their 
inaccessible  fastnesses  with  simian  agility.  They  were 
tall,  but  extremely  thin,  v/itli  members  well  propor- 
'Honed,  jipji'^'M*'  ^or  resembling  a  negro  more  than 
jaC2E2Ea*ii.ui«d  Indian.^  Thus  have  the  few  survivors 
of  this  curious  and  interesting  race  preserved  its  prin- 
cipal characteristics,  although  they  have  shamefully 
degenerated  in  their  barren  recesses  since  the  time 
their  ancestors  not  only  built  their  almost  indestruc- 
tible strongholds,  but  manufactured  fine  pottery  and 
impressed  upon  their  implements  and  weapons  evident 
signs  of  no  mean  degree  of  culture. 

Besides  these  remnants  in  New  Mexico,  a  small 
number  of  families  pertaining  to  the  same  race  are 
living  still  in  the  crevices  of  a  few  stony  islets  near  the 
promontory  of  Prince  of  AVales  in  Behring  Strait,  sup- 
porting themselves  by  their  fishing  industry.  During 
a  late  cruise,  the  United  States  steamship  Bear  visited 
King's  Island  in  Bohring  Strait,  thirty  miles  off"  Port 
Clarence,  where  there  are  about  two  hundred  of  the 
most  curious  islanders  that  were  ever  seen.    The  island 


'Congrfis  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  126,  n.  2,  ref.  to  Nature,  February  14,  1891. 


OTHER    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


101 


or  rock  they  inhabit  is  about  half  a  mile  wide  and  a 
little  more  than  that  distance  long.  On  the  southeast 
side,  closely  nestling  against  the  cliJBT,  is  a  village.  One 
abode  is  built  over  and  above  the  other;  and  to  the 
right  and  left,  giving  them  a  strange,  motley  appear- 
ance, not  unlike  the  recesses  inhabited  by  bald  eagles, 
there  are  narrow  <aves  excavated  into  the  side  of  the 
crumbling  volcanic  rock,  and  in  the  bottom  of  each  is 
found  some  of  the  short  native  grass,  forming  a  bed  on 
which  to  sleep.  At  the  mouths  of  the  caves,  and  just 
in  the  interior,  fires  are  lighted,  and  here  they  warm 
themselves  in  winter.  Skins  of  different  kinds  are  sus- 
pended outside,  to  keep  out  the  snow  and  wind.  In 
summer  the  hardy  natives  leave  their  holes  and  dwell 
in  the  odd  houses  made  of  poles  on  the  water's  edge. 
These  strange  people  are  as  strong  and  vigorous  as  any 
that  can  be  found  anywhere.  They  are  perfectly  con- 
tented and  happy.  They  have  no  government,  no 
chief,  and  no  laws.  Setting  forth  every  day  in  their 
kayaks  for  the  whale,  the  seal,  and  the  walrus,  they 
return  each  night  to  their  caves  or  pole  tents,  caring 
nothing  for  the  outside  world.  Are  these  the  enduring 
progeny  of  Cliff  Dwellers'  stragglers,  when  they  first 
set  foot  on  American  soil  ?  This  singular  fact  affords 
us  more  evidence,  scanty  as  it  is,  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers' 
north-Asiatic  origin  than  we  possess  in  regard  to  their 
virtual  disappearance  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  Few 
authors  have  sustained,  as  Jousset,^  that  they  developed 
into  the  historic  Nahua  or  Mexican  nations ;  and  Ban- 
croft ^  denies  that  their  monuments  and  institutions  were 
in  any  manner  similar  to  those  of  the  Toltecs  or  of  the 
Aztecs,  while  their  language  had  but  a  small  number  of 
words  in  common  with  that  of  their  Nahua  neighbors. 


*  Congrds  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  110.        »  Vol.  v,  p.  537. 


f  J!    ■■■ 


II 


:    :■ 


lil 


102       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  Cliff  Dwellers  have  left  us  no  testimonial  relics 
of  religious  practice  or  conviction,  with  the  exception  of 
their  probable  belief  in  man's  immortality  or  future 
life,  which  we  derive  from  the  provisions  they  gave 
along  with  the  corpses  of  the  dead,  such  as  weapons, 
implements,  and  pottery,  empty  now,  which  are  discov- 
ered still  by  the  side  of  their  bones.^ 

The  other  nation,  perhaps  a  twin  of  the  former,  and 
more  likely  its  irreconcilable  foe,  called  Pueblo  Indi- 
ans,^ were  the  contemporaries  of  the  Cliff  Dwellers,  and 
built  the  populous  cities  in  the  valleys  of  all  the  same 
countries  where  the  latter  had  possession  of  the  abrupt 
mountain  fastnesses.  A  tradition  preserved  by  the 
Piguec  tribe  relates  that,  many  moons  ago,  they  dwelt 
about  the  sources  of  the  Rio  del  Norte ;  and  the  ruins 
of  their  habitations  are  lying,  in  a  few  instances,  within, 
but  mostly  to  the  north  of,  the  Mexican  line.^  We 
find  numbers  of  them  in  the  McElmo  valley,  and  the 
entire  valley  of  the  San  Juan,  over  a  tract  of  hundreds 
of  miles,  is  strewn  with  them.  Gregg,  who  traversed 
New  Mexico  about  the  year  1840,  wrote :  "  The  ruins 
of  the  Pueblo  Bonito,  in  the  country  of  the  Navajos  at 
the  foot  of  the  Cordilleras,  are  made  up  of  houses  built 
of  sandstone  flags,  a  method  of  construction  at  present 
unknown  throughout  this  region."  Several  portions 
are  still  intact,  although  they  are  of  such  antiquity  that 
their  origin  is  absolutely  unknown.* 

Their  villages  or  cities  are  often  compared  to  bee- 
hives containing  numerous  cells.  They  consist  of  one 
complex  building  covering  a  larger  or  smaller  surface, 
with  one  or  jnore  floors,  according  to  the  number  of 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America,  *  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  395. 

p.  206.  *  Nadaillac,  in  Donahoe's  Maga- 

'  From   the  Spanish    "pueblo,"  zine,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  670,  seq, 
town  or  village. 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


103 


their  inhabitants.  Three  hundred,  four  hundred,  or 
still  more  numerous  rooms,  all  of  about  the  same  dimin- 
utive size  and  square  shape,  were  in  communication 
with  one  another,  either  by  small  openings  in  the  walls 
on  the  same  floor,  or  by  ladders  to  the  different  stories. 
A.  F.  Bandelier  found  Pecos  to  be  a  huge  pile  of  five 
hundred  and  eighty-five  compartments,  finally  aban- 
doned in  the  year  1840.  He  thinks  that  the  Pueblo 
ruins  show  successive  occupiers,  and  he  divides  them 
into  cave-dwellings,  cliff-houses,  one-story  buildings, 
and  those  of  more  than  one,  with  each  higher  floor 
retreating  from  the  frc.it  of  the  next  lower.^ 

We  have  no  space  to  give  a  full  description  of  these 
great  houses  or  "^asa§_grandes,"  as  the  Spaniards 
call  them  ;  but  we  refer  our  inquisitive  readers  to  the 
works  of  Nadaillac,  of  Charney  and  Violet-le-Duc,^ 
of  Lord  Kingsborough/..  of  Bancroft,*  and  several 
other  writers,  who  give  most  interesting  and  accurate 
descriptions  of  the  Pueblo  establishments.  Let  it  only 
be  added  that  Gushing  estimates  at  thirteen  thousand 
the  population  of  the  town  which  he  has  called  Los 
Muertos,  while  that  of  "  Casa  Grande"  proper  is 
valued  as  having  been  of  ninety  thousand.  From  the 
number  of  rooms  contained  in  these  piles  of  adobes 
neither  estimate  seems  to  be  excessive.^ 


'  Winsor,  vol.  i.  pp.  396,  397. 

''  Ruines  Am^ricaines. 

'  Mexican  Antiquities. 

♦  Vol.  iv.  pp.  134,  604-614. 

5  In  a  MS.  titled  "  Rudo  Ensayo," 
preserved  in  the  Archives  of  Mex- 
ico, translated  in  the  ' '  Records  of 
the  American  Catholic  Historical 
Society,"  vol.  v.  p.  109,  serj.;  and 
written  by  an  eye-witness,  a  inis- 
sionary  of  Northern  Mexico  in  the 
year  1763,  we  read:  "The  Gila 
River  leaves  on  its  left,  at  tiie  dis- 


tance of  one  league,  the  Casa 
Grande,  called  the  house  of  Mocte- 
zuina,  because  of  a  tradition  current 
among  the  Indians  and  Spaniards 
of  this  place  having  been  one  of  the 
abodes  in  which  the  Mexicans 
rested  in  their  long  transmigrations. 
Tliis  great  house  is  four  stories  high, 
still  standing,  with  a  roof  made  of 
beams  of  cedar  or  tlascal,  and  with 
most  solid  walls  of  a  material  that 
looks  like  the  best  cement.  It  is 
divided  into  many  halls  and  rooms, 


104       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


1 


':    !H 


That  this  once  wide-spread  and  numerous  nation 
had  in  olden  times  attained  a  remarkable  degree  of 
culture  is  sufficiently  established  by  the  numerous 
relics  of  its  ancient  monuments.  All  the  pueblos  of 
any  importance  were  surrounded  with  fortifications  of 
solid  masonry,  their  fields  were  covered  with  ditches 
for  irrigation,  and  larger  canals  are  indicative  of  in- 
land navigation.  One  of  these  canals,  not  far  from 
"  Casa  Grande,"  was  fed  by  the  Gila  River.  As  far 
as  can  be  ascertained  to-day,  it  was  twenty-seven 
feet  wide,  ten  feet  deep,  and  had  a  length  of  about 
nine  miles.  Another  canal  in  the  valley  of  the  Sa- 
lado  was  almost  as  wide,  with  a  depth  of  four  or  five 
feet.  The  existence  of  these  aqueducts,  wherever 
they  could  be  of  advantage  to  commerce  or  agricul- 
ture, bears  testimony  to  the  progress  realized  by  these 
people. 


and  might  well  lodge  a  travelling 
court.  Three  leagues  distant  and 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  river 
there  is  another  similar  house,  but 
now  much  demolished,  which, 
from  the  ruins,  can  be  inferred  to 
have  been  of  vaster  size  than  the 
former.  For  some  leagues  around, 
in  the  neighborhood  of  these  houses, 
wherever  the  earth  is  dug  up, 
broken  pieces  of  very  fine  and  va- 
riously colored  earthernware  are 
found.  Judging  from  a  reservoir 
of  vast  extent  and  still  open,  which 
is  found  two  leagues  up  the  river, 
holding  sufficient  water  to  supply  a 
city  and  to  irrigate  for  nmny  leagues 
the  fruitful  land  of  that  beautiful 
plain,  the  residence  of  the  Mexi- 
cans there  must  not  have  been  a 
brief  one.  ...  I  have  heard  of 
other  buildings,  even  more  exten- 
sive and  more  correct  in  art  and 
symmetry,  through  Father  Ignatius 


Xavier  Keller.  He  spoke  of  one 
that  measured  in  frontage,  on  a 
straight  line,  half  a  league  in  length, 
and  apparently  nearly  aa  much  in 
depth ;  the  whole  divided  into 
square  blocks,  each  block  three  or 
four  stories  high,  though  greatly 
dilapidated  in  many  parts ;  but  in 
one  of  the  angles  there  was  still 
standing  a  massive  structure  of 
greater  proportions,  like  a  castle  or 
palace,  five  or  six  stories  high.  Of 
the  resei  /oir,  the  Reverend  Father 
said  that  it  not  only  lay  in  front  of 
the  house  ;  but  that,  before  itis  out- 
let reached  there,  it  divided  up  into 
many  canals,  through  which  the 
water  might  enter  all  the  streets, 
probably  for  cleansing  purposes, 
when  such  waa  desired,  as  is  done 
in  Turin  and  other  cities  of  Europe, 
and  was  done  even  in  Mexico  in 
olden  times." 


OTHER    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


105 


The  country  that  once  teemed  with  a  numerous  pop- 
ulation is  now  a  dry,  barren  desert.  The  irrigation 
ditches  of  the  Pueblos  are  proof  that  modern  irrigation 
schemes  might  restore  these  vast  wastes  to  the  use  of 
humanity.  Could  modern  science  and  vaunted  prog- 
ress not  do  what  those  ancient  nations  did  to  make 
possible  the  abode  of  man,  we  shall  not  say  on  the 
fastnesses  of  the  Cliif  Dwellers,  but  in  the  valleys  of 
the  Pueblos  ?  The  airy  habitations  of  the  CliflF  Dwell- 
ers themselves  were  evidently  not  deprived  of  water. 
There  was  no  question  of  irrigation  on  the  rocky 
mountain-sides,  but  the  people  took  care  to  have 
water  for  domestic  use,  even  on  their  cliflPs.  Here  and 
there  we  can  still  find  traces  of  shallow  reservoirs  ;  and 
sloping  hollows  in  the  rocks  near  the  houses  are  not 
infrequently  dammed  to  save  the  melting  snow  or  the 
waste  of  showers.  The  considerable  number  of  large 
jars  found  among  the  ruins  would  indicate  that  water, 
as  well  as  corn  and  beans,  was  stored  in  the  houses. 
Moreover,  small  springs  still  exist  near  some  of  the 
largest  cliff-houses. 

The  Pueblos  have  left  us,  as  have  the  Cliff  Dwellers, 
a  large  number  of  symbolical  paintings  and  beautiful 
specimens  of  their  ceramic  art,  the  forms  of  which  are 
so  symmetrical  that  it  is  hardly  conceivable  how  they 
could  be  made,  as  they  wore,  without  the  knowledge  of 
the  potter's  wheel. ^ 

All  these  relics  of  material  advancement  point  to  a 
religion  of  no  common  purity.  Yet,  besides  the  evi- 
dences of  their  belief  in  a  future  life  seen  in  their 
burying-grounds,  there  seem  to  remain  no  positive 
witnesses  of  their  religious  practices.     Most  authors. 


'  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  117  ;     Smithsonian  Institution,  July,  1896, 
Nadaillac,  in  Donahoe's  Magazine,     p.  582. 
vol.  XXXV.,  p.  676;  Report  of  the 


106       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


however,  consider  as  places  of  public  worship  the 
small  round  apartments  invariably  found  in  the  base- 
ment of  each  pueblo,  where  a  sacred  fire  was  kept  up 
night  and  day,  as  it  was  in  the  Jewish  temple  of  Jeru- 
salem, and  is  still  in  the  holy  lamp  ~t)e^we  the  Blessed 
Sacrament  in  Catholic  churches.^  .„<— — — *^ 

Mr.  Short  ^  niakes  the  following  statement  of  the 
Pueblo  In dia'0»'  traditions  :  "  The  many-sided  culture- 
,^  hero  of  the  Pueblos,  Montezuma"  (whom  Jousset' 
>^  !->  wrongly  confounds  with  the  last  Mexican  king),  "  is 
"  the  centre  of  a  group  of  the  most  poetic  myths  found 
in  ancient  American  mythology.  The  Pueblos  be- 
lieved in  a  Supreme  Being,  a  Good  Spirit,  so  exalted 
and  worthy  of  reverence  that  his  name  was  considered 
too  sacred  to  utter,  as,  with  the  ancient  Hebrews,  Je- 
hovah was  the  unmentionable  name.  Nevertheless, 
Montezuma  was  the  equal  of  this  Great  Spirit,  and  was 
often  considered  identical  with  the  sun.  Mr.  Bancroft 
says,  *  Und(ir  restrictions,  we  may  fairly  regard  him  as 
the  Metcfitzedak,  the  Moses,  and  the  Messiah  of  the 
Pueblo  desert-wanderers  from  an  Egypt  that  history 
is  ignorant  of,  and  whose  name  even  ti'adition  wbis- 
p6rS  not;  He  taught  his  people  to  build  cities  with 
tal]  houses,  to  construct  estufas,*  or  semi-sacred  sweat- 
houses,  and  to  kindle  and  guard  the  sacred  fire.'  ^  Fre- 
mont gives  an  account  of  the  birth  of  the  hero,  in 
which  his  mother  is  declared  to  have  been  a  woman 
of  exquisite  beauty,  admired  and  sought  after  by  all 
men.  She  was  the  recipient  of  rich  presents  of  corn 
and  skins  from  her  admirers,  yet  she  refused  the  hands 
of  all  her  seekers.     A  famine  soon  occurred  and  great 


I  n-«w  .■■•*  ■■•^  /^Tc  v; 


•***  ''t'^^^^ 


'  Jousset,  in  Congr^s  Scient. ,  viii. 
sec.  p.  116. 
'  P.  333,  seq. 
'  Congr^s  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  116. 


*  Stoves,  hearths,  and,  in  partic- 
ular, the  pueblo  nund  basement 
cells. 

0  Vol.  iii.  p.  172. 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


107 


distress  followed.  Now  the  fastidious  beauty  showed 
herself  to  be  a  lady  of  charitable  spirit  and  tender 
heart :  she  opened  her  granaries,  in  which  all  her 
treasures  had  been  stored,  and  out  of  their  abundance 
relieved  the  wants  of  the  poor.  At  last,  when  the 
pure  and  plenteous  rains  again  brought  fertility  to 
the  earth,  the  summer  shower  fell  upon  the  pueblo  god- 
dess, and  she  gave  birth  to  a  son,  the  immortal  Mon- 
tezuma." 

Did  not,  at  the  perusal  of  this  tradition,  arise  in  the 
minds  of  our  intelligent  readers  a  reasonable  appre- 
henp.ion  that  the  ancient  Pueblo  Indians  had  heard  of 
the  history  of  the  Jewish  nation,  of  the  history  of 
Jacob's  son  in_Egypt ;  nay,  that  they  had  listened  to 


the  voice  of  Christian  missionaries,  teaching  them  the 
mystery  of  our  Saviour's  birth  from  a  most  charitable 
and  immaculate  virgin  ?  Or  have  the  ancient  tradi- 
tions been  warped  or  even  been  originated  by  Pueblo 
Indians  of  modern  times?  We  have  no  means  to 
decide  these  questions. 

We  let  Mr.  Short  continue :  "  The  intelligent  chief 
of  the  Papagoes,  whose  people  occupy  the  territory 
between  the  Santa  Cruz  River  and  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia, related  a  legend  of  the  origin  and  offices  of 
Montezuma,^  which  surprises  the  reader  with  its  close 
resemblances  to  some  leading  points  in  the  Hebrew 
book  of  jGrenesis"  (among  others,  the  formation  of  the 
first  man's  body  from  the  clay  of  the  earth).  "  In  the 
period  following  the  birth  of  the  race  the  sun  was 
very  much  nearer  to  the  earth  than  now,  and  his  grate- 
ful presence  rendered  clothing  useless  ;  a  common  lan- 
guage between  all  men,  shared  even  by  beasts,'^  was 
one  of  the  strongest  possible  bonds  of  peace.     But  at 

'  Cf.  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.         '  The  serpent  spep.king  to  Eve  in 
75,  seq.  the  garden  of  Eden. 


108       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


t     ; 


last  this  paradisiacal  age  was  ended  by  a  great  deluge, 
in  which  all  men,  but  Montezuma  and  the  coyote,  and 
all  living  creatures  perished.  The  Great  Spirit  and 
Montezuma  again  created  men  and  animals.  But  Mon- 
tezuma was  neglectful  in  his  government,  and  tlie  Great 
Spirit  pushed  the  sun  back  to  a  remote  part  of  the  sky 
as  a  punishment.  At  this  Montezuma  became  enraged, 
collected  the  tribes  around  him,  and  set  about  the  con- 
struction of  a  house  which  should  reach  heaven.  The 
builders  had  already  finished  several  apartments  lined 
with  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones,  and  progressed 
to  a  point  which  encouraged  all  to  believe  that  their 
defiant  purpose  would  he  accomplished,  when  the  Great 
Spirit  smote  it  to  the  earth  amid  the  crash  of  his  thun- 
der." Montezuma  continued  in  his  war  with  Heaven, 
but  as  a  new  punishment  the  Great  Spirit  caused  an 
insect  to  fly  towards  the  East  to  an  unknown  land, — 
and  here  is  an  evident  interpolation  or  addition  to  more 
ancient  teachings, — to  bring  the  Spaniards,  who  utterly 
destroyed  him.^ 

,^e  suixeiider  all  these  Pueblo  traditions  to  the 
criticism  of  our  readers,  and  close  our  remarks  upon 
this  interesting  race  by  stating  that  liisfeorj  ofifers  no 
evidence,  either  in  regard  to  their  origin,  the  epoch 
of  their  arrival  in  the  New  World,  or  to  their  disap- 
pearance as  an  important  nation.  An  idea,  however, 
not  wanting  in  reasonable  grounds  and  admitted  by 
the  learned  generally  is,  that  the  Pueblos,  like  the 
Cliflf  Dwellers,  were  comparatively  late  immigrants 
from  a  semi-civilized  and,  probably,  Asiatic  country. 
They  cannot  be  considered  as  descendants  of  the 
Mound-builders  nor  as  ancestors  of  the  later  Mexican 
Aztecs.^ 


t. '  1 


*  Cf.   Congriis  Scient.,   viii.    sec. 
p.  116. 


'  "The  pueblos  of  New  Mexico 
and  Arizona  are  among  the  most 


OTHER    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


109 


It  is  very  probable  and,  from  antiquarians'  discov- 
eries, almost  certain  that  several  more  races  of  men, 
besides  those  which  we  noticed  already,  have  lived  on 
the  broad  surface  of  our  Western  Continent,  and  have 
vanished  long  ago  without  le.iving  any  certain  record 
of  their  existence.  Neither  could  we,  considering,  in 
the  light  of  general  anthropological  principles,  the 
presence  of  so  many  aboriginal  tribes  on  American  soil, 
entertain  the  least  doubt  that  some  of  our  contempo- 
rary Indians  are  the  fallen  descendants  of  very  ancient 
American  nations.  History,  however,  is  at  a  loss  to 
determine  the  national  age  of  any  of  them,  because  the 
horizon  of  their  own  chronology  does  not  extend  beyond 
many  moons  or  many  snows,  nor  even,  in  several  in- 
stances, beyond  the  successful  wars  of  their  father's 
father. 

Still  a  few  Indian  tribes  have  been  found  in  pos- 
session of  somewhat  obscure  but,  for  a  scholar,  most 
interesting  annals,  that  offer  a  precious  clue  to  the 
secrets  not  only  of  their  respectable  antiquity,  but 
also  of  their  origin  and  migrations,  of  their  religious 
science  and  losTaltsTKiid^f  the  most  salient  features 
of  their  long  and  eventful  history.  Such  records 
have  been  discovered  among  the  Illinois,  the  Sha- 
wanis,  and  with  every  branch  of  the  Linapi- Algonquin 
nation.^ 

The  traditions  of  the  Linapis,  sometimes  called  Lenni- 
Lenapes,^— ^DelavyareSj— are  preserved  in  one  of  the 
most  ancient  forms  of  writing, — namely,  on  curiously 
notched  and  painted  sticks,  which  they  call  Wallam 


interesting  structures  in  the  world. 
Some  are  still  inhabited  by  the  de- 
scendants of  the  people  who  were 
living  in  them  at  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  discovery,  and  their  primi- 
tive customs  and  habits  of  thought 


have  been  preserved  to  the  present 
day  with  but  little  change. ' '  ( Fiske, 
vol.  i.  p.  85. ) 

»  C.  S.  Rafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  131. 

»  De  Quatrefages,  p.  26(). 


t 


-  ■■>. 


110       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Olum,'  and  interpret  still  in  their  old  remarkable  na- 
tional songs.  Mr.  Rafinesque  says,'^  "  Having  obtained 
some  of  the  original  Wallam  Olum  of  the  Linapi  tribe 
of  Wapahani  or  White  River,  we  will  give  the  word- 
for-word  translation  of  the  songs  annexed  to  each, 
which  form  a  kind  of  connected  annals  of  the  nation. 
Yet  the  songs  appear  to  be  mere  abridgements  of  more 
copious  annals.  These  Linapi  records  consist  of  three 
ancient  songs  relating  their  traditions  previous  to  their 
arrival  in  America,^  and  of  seven  more  Linapi  or  North 
American  Indians'  songs,  that  are  mere  compendiums 
of  better  annals  now  probably  lost,  and  relate  the  In- 
dians' history  from  their  arrival  in  America  to  the  set- 
tlement of  the  Whites  among  them,  about  a.d.  1600. 
Ninety-six  successive  kings  (ten  anonymous)  are  men- 
tioned ;  hence  probably  ninety-six  generations,  to  each 
of  which  one-third  of  a  century  may  be  accorded,  and 
to  all  thirty -two  centuries,  which  lead  us  back  to  sixteen 
hundred  years  before  our  era."  * 

We  reprint  in  the  Appendix  some  of  these  Linapi 
songs  and  some  weighty  extracts  from  others,  to  offer 
our  ingenious  readers  an  opportunity  to  draw  from  them 
still  more  historic  or  other  conclusions  than  we  have 
space  to  point  out ;  for,  indeed,  we  ourselves  can  base 


'  This  primitive  manner  of  re- 
cording is  not  wholly  abandoned 
yet.  Our  tally  (from  the  French 
taillcr,  to  cut)  is  a  Wallum  Olum. 
Noah  Webster,  in  his  dictionary, 
remarks,  at  the  word  tally,  "  Before 
the  use  of  writing,  this,  i.e.,  notched 
sticks,  or  something  like  it,  was  the 
only  method  of  keeping  accounts, 
and  tallies  are  received  as  evidence 
in  courts  of  justice."  The  ancient 
Icelander,  Halniund,  thus  speaks 
to  his  daughter  :  "Thou  shalt  now 
listen  while  I  relate  my  deeds  and 


sing  thereof  a  song,  which  thou 
shalt  afterwards  cut  upon  a  staff." 
(B.  F.  De  Costa,  the  Precolumbian 
Discovery  of  America,  p.  43,  n.  1. ) 
From  the  German  word  Bnclistabe, 
meaning  a  letter,  writing  or  print- 
ing character,  it  would  seem  that 
the  ancient  Teutons  also  used  the 
Linai)i  kind  of  writing. 

»  T.  i.  p.  122,  seq. 

'  See  Appendix,  Document  I. 

*  C.  S.  Rafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  131 ; 
see  Appendix,  Document  II. 


-«^ 


OTHER   ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


Ill 


upon  them  a  few  remarks  only,  that  seem  almost  liter- 
all^fSSet  forth  in  the  original  traditions. 

The  most  important  is  the  one  already  insisted  upon 
by  the  learned  compiler  of  these  documents, — namely, 
that  the  annals  of  the  Linapi  or  North  American  In- 
dians ascend  to  thirty-two  centuries,  or,  should  the  ten 
kings  si)oken  of  in  verse  17  of  the  second  song  of  Docu- 
ment II.  have  reigned  simultaneously,  to  thirteen  cen- 
turies at  least  before  Christ,  thus  forming  the  connecting 
link  between  the  conjectures  and  scientific  conclusions 
about  the  extinct  American  races  and  modern  American 
history.  It  is  for  this  reason  of  the  great  antiquity  of 
our  red-skinned  Linapis,  that  we  join  to  our  researches 
regarding  the  pristine  lost  inhabitants  of  this  continent 
the  relation  of  a  few  historical  data  either  expressly  or 
implicitly  recorded  upon  their  writing-sticks  and  in 
their  ancient  hymns. 

Before  all  else  we  could  not  help  noticing  that  the 
very  existence  of  the  Linapi  written  chronicles,  their 
well-established  antiquity  dating  from  seventy-two  gen- 
erations anterior  to  the  year  1600,  or  from  the  eighth 
century  before  our  era,^  but  above  all  their  earnestness 
and  their  accuracy  evinced  by  their  conformity  with 
the  general  traditions  of  enlightened  mankind  and  the 
conclusions  of  modern  science,  are  proof  sufficient  that 
the  remote  ancestors  of  these  tribes  had  attained  a  much 
higher  degree  of  civilization  than  that  of  their  fallen 
posterity,  and  that  they  had  lived  at  no  great  distance 
from  the  biblical  patriarchs,  who  had  preserved  incor- 
rupt the  memory  of  man's  primordial  history  and  the 
truths  of  primeval  divine  revelation.  That  these  In- 
dians, and  probably  several  more  congenial  tribes,  vtjre 


Christians,  in  the  broad  sense  of  the  word,  at  the  time 


"•"«*.: 


112       HISTOHY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


i 


In !' 


of  their  landing  on  American  soil  can  scarcely  be 
doubted.  They  knew  and  worshipped  the  one  eternal, 
spiritual,  and  ubiquitous  God,  who  "caused"  or  created 
the  heavens  and  tlie  earth  and  all  they  contain  ; '  they 
knew  of  the  happiness  of  our  first  parents  eating  the 
"  fat  fruit"  of  Eden,  and  of  the  "  bad  spirit"  who 
brought  them  to  sin,  misfortune,  and  death ;  ^  and,  as 
they  were  acquainted  with  the  circumstances  of  the 
dire  tragedy,  we  may  readily  infer  that  they  were  not 
altogether  ignorant  of  its  most  important  particular : 
the  promise  of  a  Redeemer,  which  constitutes  the  deep- 
est foundation  of  Christianity.^ 

We  would  almost  venture  to  say  that  the  second 
Linapi  song  is  an  exegetical  paraphrase  of  Genesis 
relating  the  opposition  between  the  "sons  of  men"  and 
the  "  sons  of  God,"  and  the  final  prevalence  of  wick- 
edness, which  led  to  the  catastrophe  of  the  deluge.* 
The  Linapi  description  of  the  deluge  is  unmistakable, 
although  somewhat  confused,  and  Noe  or  Nana  is  clearly 
set  forth  as  the  second  ancestor  of  all  human  posterity.* 
These  are  what  we  might  call  the  religious  traditions 
of  the  forefathers  of  some  North  American  aborigines, 
which  are,  however,  as  a  sealed  book  for  the  modern 
tribes  that  lately  still  recited  them  with  peculiar 
melody. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  they  understand  any  better 
their  own  account  of  their  migration  to,  and  of  their 
journeys  and  dispersion  upon,  this  western  hemis- 
phere. Their  songs  plainly  tell  of  their  original  coun- 
try or  **  first  land  beyond  the  great  ocean"  **  and  of  the 
special  region  "Tulla"  and  the  "cave-house  and  dwelling 


*  See  Document  I.,  a,  v.  1-14. 
'  Ibid.,  a,  V.  14-24. 

» Ibid.,  b,  V.  12. 

*  Ibid.,  b,  V.  1-6. 


"  Ibid.,  b,  V.  6,  and  seq.,  and  the 
hymn  annexed. 
•Ibid.,  a,  V.  24. 


OTHER    ANCIENT    AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


113 


of  Talli."  *  It  in  quite  noteworthy  that,  us  we  shall  see 
hereafter,  the  Toltecs  and  the  Mexicans  gave  identical 
names  to  the  land  whence  they  came.  What  precisely 
this  land  may  be  has  often  been  discussed  ;  but  we  feel 
inclined  to  admit  that  it  corresponds  to  Tartary  on  the 
confines  of  Europe  and  Asia,  because  t^ere,  in  classic 
times,  existed  yet  the  city  of^TyTa^orTVras,  which  is 
the  same  with  Xula^',!ji'iamLii^'  being  the  same  vowel, 
and  the  consonants  "  r"  and  "  1"  being  often  confounded 
by  Europeans,  while  the  former  is  generally  replaced 
by  the  latter  with  most  Asiatic  and  American  peoples. 
Whichever  the  case  may  be,  the  sequel  of  the  Linapi 
tradition  seems  to  bear  out  our  opinion,  for,  from  this 
couiitry  the  pilgrims  set  out  in  an  easterly  direction 
towards  America,  which,  in  the  East,  they  saw  to  be 
"  bright  and  wealthy ;"  and  finally  they  "  went  over 
the  water  of  the  frozen  sea,  ten  thousand  in  a  single 
night  in  the  dark."  ^ 

In  reading  these  records  we  cannot  help  thinking 
that  the  ancient  Linapis  crossed  a  considerable  part  of 
Asia,  and  during  a  long  aortfeertt- wight' the  Bchring 
Strait,  near  whose  shores  they  tarried  awhile.  Under 
their  fifth  king  they  moved  to  more  genial  climes,  and 
while  some  were  going  farther  and  farther  south,  others 
chose  an  easterly  direction.  Both  climate  and  soil  would 
here  allow  them  fixed  residences,  and  they  commenced 
building  cities  under  Matemik,  their  twentieth  king, 
Their  twenty-fourth  leader  was  given  to  literary  pur- 
suits, and  notched  many  a  stick,  recording  the  his- 
tory of  his  people,  about  either  eight  hundred  or  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ.  A  century  later  the 
tribe  moved  on  eastward  far  away  from  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  to  plains  where  corn  thrives  and  the  buffalo 

*  See  Document  I.,  6,  v.  8,  9 ;  c,         ^  Ibid.,  c,  especially  v.  9,  13,  16- 
V.  1.  19. 

1—8 


J 


¥     i\ 


114        HISTOEY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I,    . 


i(  •-, '     ' 


roams/  Interior  dissensions  here  split  the  tribe  again, 
and  a  number  of  families  went  on  farther  east  towards 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  while  those  remaining  in  the 
plains  were  improving  their  residences  and  building 
towns.  This  progress  in  material  welfare  and  civil  life 
was  accompanied  with  a  revival  of  religious  worship, 
which  was  considerably  beautified  by  the  institution  of 
many  festivals  ordered  by  their  pontiff  and  thirty - 
eighth  king  WinffenumL^ 

But  their  prosperity  probably  excited  the  jealousy 
and  covetousness  of  neighboring  nations,  for  we  next 
fiud  them  engaged  during  the  space  of  four  generations 
in  almost  constant  wars,  which  evidently  drove  them 
east  as  far  as  the  great  lakes,  on  whose  southern  shores 
they  lit  their  council  fires,  built  their  houses,  and  soon 
prospered  again  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  new  neigh- 
bors' friendship.^  This  was  about  the  time  of  their 
fiftieth  king,  of  the  universal  peace  in  the  Eastern 
Continent,  and  of  the  nativity  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 

But  few  particulars  of  interest  are  recorded  of  the 
next  eight  hundred  years.  Peace  did  not  endure  much 
over  a  century,  but  was,  it  seems,  restored  about  the  end 
of  the  third  century  of  our  erji,  to  allow  renascence  of 
liberal  arts  and  the  registering  of  national  events  by 
the  sixtieth  king,  who  "  painted  many  books  or  notched 
sticks."  Either  because  of  renewed  dissensions  or  of 
an  increase  of  population,  another  division  of  the  tribe 
took  place  during  the  fifth  century.  *'  Many  went  away 
to  the  South  Lands,"  under  the  names  of  Nentegos 
and  of  Shawanis,  and  others  still  swarmed  off,  a  few 
hundred  years  later,  towards  the  east,  reaching  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  under  3Iakhiawip,  their 


*  See  Document  II.,  a,  v.  10,  12 ; 
6,  V.  21,  23,  28. 


"Ibid.,  &,  V.  32;  c,  v.  34,  39. 
« Ibid.,  c,  V.  43-48 ;  d,  v.  Gl,  62. 


f 


OTHER   ANCIENT   AMERICAN    NATIONS. 


115 


seventy-sixth  king/  This  was  the  place  wliere  the 
nations  of  the  Okl  and  of  the  New  Workl  met  in  the 
eleventh  century  of  the  Christian  era,  for,  as  the  Linapi 
tradition  states,'^  "  at  this  time  [of  the  eighty-third 
king],  from  the  East  Sea  was  coming  a  whiter  WapsV 

Rafinesque^  remarks  that  this,  in  the  American  an- 
nals, is  the  first  mention  of  white  men  immigrating 
into  our  Western  Continent.  The  Tuscaroras  of  North 
Carolina,  he  adds,  were  visited  at  the  same  time  by 
Cusick,  and  the  Mohians  had  also  their  Wachqueow. 
Heckewelder  has  omitted  this  tradition  as  many  others, 
but  Holm,  in  his  description  of  New_Si£eiien^ positively 
gives  two  traditions  of  the  Linapis,  Renapis  tribe,  telling 
of  a  white  woman  who  came  to  America,  married  an 
American,  and  had  a  son  who  went  to  heaven,  and  of 
two  "  bigmouths"  or  preachers,  who  came  afterwards, 
wearmg__longbearas,  and  also  went  up  to  heaven. 
KaHnesqiJe  isoT  the~opinion  that  this  Indian  record 
has  reference  to  the  Northman  settlements  and  the 
evangelization  of  Vinfund  by  ChristiarTBishops ;  but, 
for  the  sake  of  chronological  order,  we  shall  defer  the 
discussion  of  this  question  to  its  proper  place,  and  con- 
clude our  synopsis  of  the  Linapi  traditions  by  the 
closing  verses  of  their  last  national  hymn  :  **  At  this 
time  [of  their  ninety-sixth  king],  north  and  south,  the 
Wapayachik  came,  the  white  or  eastern  moving  souls. 
They  were  friendly  and  came  in  bij^  bird-ships  [sailing 
vessels].     Who  are  they  ?  ' 

No  explanation  is  needed  here,  but  it  is  interesting 
to  notice  on  the  record-sticks  that  the  European  ar- 
rivals of  the  ekv£iiili_aa(Laixteeiith  centimes  at^e  repre- 
sented  by  almost  identical  engravmgs^^^^^^Tmmel^va  boat 
with  mast  and_gaiLaiid  a  crosti  over  it.      Our  first 

'  See  Document  II.,  d,  v.  62  ;  e;         *  Ibid.,/,  v.  40. 


/,  V.  26,  27. 


T.  i.  p.  157,  n.  31. 


1 


HI 


116       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

parents  have  for  sign  an  aureola ;  the  Snake  nation  is 
marked  by  a  forked  tongue ;  other  peoples" 'me ntTeiied 
have  other  glyphs^  tlie  tolcen"  of  European  white  im- 
migrants is  the  cross  !  ^  Did,  perhaps,  the  Christian 
symbol  emblazon  the  sails  of  Leif  Ericsson's  vessel  as 
it  did  those  of  Columbus's  galleys  ? 

Besides  the  Linapi  songs  there  exist  a  few  Indian 
legends  that  might  justly  claim  a  student's  attention  ; 
but  we  could  not  here  allow  them  space,  because  their 
import  is  of  such  a  doubtful  and  abstruse  character 
that  they  are  apt  rather  to  obscure  than  to  enlighten 
America's  incipient  history. 

Much  valuable  information  is,  no  doubt,  preserved  by 
Central  American  hieroglyphics ;  but  these  have  un- 
happily remained  a  sealed  book  until  this  day.  We 
consequently  must,  for  further  intelligence  regarding 
our  earliest  history,  turn  our  eyes  to  the-i^ecords  of  the 
01d_WoriiL.and  search  whether  the  ancient  writers  of 
fEe^eastern  hemisphere  had  any  knowledge  of  the  west- 
ern, whether  from  their  beautiful  pages  any  information 
may  be  gleaned  to  promote  our  study. 

No  one  is,  less  than  ourselves,  sanguine  as  to  the 
result  of  these  new  inquiries ;  yet  we  would  not  feel 
justified  in  neglecting  to  make  them,  when  we  consider 
that  they  are  not  likely  to  be  fruitless  altogether,  be- 
cause neither  the  condition  of  ancient  arts  and  sciences 
in  general  nor  any  positive  fact  in  particular  forbid  us 
to  admit  that  the  learned  of  primitive  ages  may  have 
known  their  transmarine  contemporaries  as  we  our- 
selves know  the  lands  and  nations  beyond  the  Pacific 
and  the  Atlantic  wastes. 


•  Kafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  158,  i>.  36. 


CHAPTER    V. 

NOTIONS   OF    AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT    GREECE. 

The  Phoenician,  Sanchoniathon,  -who,  after  Moses, 
is  the  oldest  of  all  known  historians,  and  lived  twenty 
or  twenty-two  centuries  before  Christ,  not  only  heard 
of  the  continent  lying  beyond  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  but 
seems  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  its  inhabitants. 
In  tho  few  pages  of  his  works,  preserved  by  the  quota- 
tions of  subsequent  authors,  he  tells  of  the  cosmogony 
of  the  Atlantides  and  of  their  doctrine  of  man's  first 
appearance  on  earth ;  he  relates  the  fratricidal  war  of 
two  sons  of  their  first  deified  man  and  the  marriage  of 
tiieir  Uranus  with  Tithis,  his  sister,^  and  speaks  with 
high  praise  of  their  sciences  and  arts.^ 

To  the  Phoenicians  does  also  the  learned  geographer 
von  Humboldt^  trace  back  the  knowledge  of  our 
AVestern  Continent's  existence,  which  we  find  repeat- 
edly and  with  a  certain  uniformity  expressed,  he  says, 
even  through  the  most  remote  centuries.  He  doubts 
whether  the  ocean  route  to  Plutarch's  Great  Continent 
had  been  determined  by  the  PlifBuicians'  real  discov- 
eries of  the  New  World  or  by  their  fanciful  imagination. 
We  could  hardly  admit  the  latter  supposition  when  we 
reflect  that  the  highway  between  Europe  and  America 
as  described  at  the  time  of  Christ  has  been  during  long 
historic  periods  frequented  by  the  ships  of  either  hemi- 
sphere, as  w^e  shall  point  out  more  clearly  hereafter. 


'  Phamicia  had  not  yet  lost  the 
traditions  which  Moses  has  re- 
corded in  the  first  chapters  of  Gen- 
esis. 


^  Baily,  p.  02. 

'  J^xamen,  vol.  i.  p. 


193. 


117 


\ 


118       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


lii'   i' 


^    ? 


It  is  not  unlikely  that  Phoenician  vessels,  passing  by 
the  regular  trade-posts  of  the  Scilly  Islands,  have 
struck  the  American  coast,*  and  nothing  but  our  invin- 
cible ignorance  prevents  us  from  surmising  the  existence 
of  a  regular  intercourse  between  the  two  continents  at 
the  time  of,  and  before,  Sanchoniathon. 

It  is  quite  natural  that  the  cosmographical  sciences 
of  the  ancient  commercial  nation  should  have  spread 
from  Tyre  and  Sidon  to  Memphis  in  Egypt,  where  the 
sacerdotal  caste  carefully  recorded  in  their  sacred 
temple  books  all  useful  or  interesting  information,  and 
to  Athens  in  Greece,  once  of  all  the  world  the  most 
flourishing  centre  of  advanced  literature ;  but  geographi- 
cal knowledge  of  foreign  countries  has  always  been  in 
proportion  to  the  business  relations  with  them  ;  and  as 
Greece  entertained  no  practical  intercourse  with  Amer- 
ica, it  is  easily  understood  that  the  cosmography  and  the 
history  of  our  continent  never  received  any  great  atten- 
tion from  its  people,  while  also  the  Phoenicians'  geo- 
graphical knowledge  grew  narrower  and  dimmer  as 
special  circumstances  restricted  and  jjut  an  end  to  their 
distant  voyages. 

Yet  all  the  early  writers  of  Greece  profess  their 
belieTlnthe  existence  of  certain  regions  situated  in  the 
West  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  actual  knowledge ;  and 
it  is  evident  that  the  tales  of  Homer,  far  from  being 
arbitrary,  were  founded  on  very  ancient  and  widely 
diffused  traditions  of  almost  obliterated  truth.^ 

Homer,  who  composed  the  two  masterpieces  of  an- 
cient poetry,  nine  hundred,  according  to  some  chronol- 
ogists,  or,  according  to  others,  fourteen  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  placed  the  Elysium  on  the  western  verge 
of   the  earth,   the    home  of  the  heroes  exempt  from 

•*  »  B.  F.  De  Costa,  Pre-columbian        *  W.  D.  Cooley,  The  History,  vol. 
Discovery,  p.  11.  i.  pp.  17,  26. 


I 


I 
I 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE.       119 


deatli,  "  where  life  is  easiest  to  man.  No  snow  is 
there,  nor  yet  great  storm  nor  rain,  but  Ocean  always 
sendeth  forth  the  breeze  of  the  shrill  West  to  blow 
cool  on  men."  ^  He  has  left  a  picture  of  the  easy,  in- 
dolent, and  altogether  happy  life  of  America's  equa- 
torial natives,  graphically  describing  the  Elysian  plain 
situated  at  the  extremity  of  the  western  sea,  where, 
under  a  serene  sky,  the  fayorjtfis  of  jQv.fi4jexempt  from 
the  common  lot  of  mortals,  enjoy  eternal  felicity.'^ 

Some  writers  conclude,  with  less  certainty,  from 
Homer's  epopee,  that  he  was  not  ignorant  of  the  pitia- 
ble tribes  who  then  as  now  inhabited  the  artic  regions 
of  our  continent.  Homer,  says  Cooley,^  makes  Ulys- 
ses reach,  past  the  isle  of  ^olus,  a  race  of  cannibals. 
The  hero  crosses  the  ocean  and  comes  at  last  to  the 
ends  of  it,  where  the  Cimmerians  dwell,  wrapped  in 
profound  gloom,  for  they  see  neither  the  rising  nor  the 
setting  sun,  and  the  veil  of  night  is  constantly  spread 
above  them. 

Homer  had  heard  of  the  ocean  and  Cimmeria  in  the 
West,  but  he  knew  not  how  far  off  they"w^ere^  Homer's 
Ki^^eptoi  may  perhaps  be  identified  with  the  Cimbri  of 
Tacitus  and  Ptolemy,  and  found  in  the  misty,  gloomy 
regions  of  northwestern  Germany  ;  but  his  Elysium 
could  not  well  be  removed  from  American  territory. 

In  like  manner  does  Hesiod,  a  Greek  poet  of  the 
ninth  century  before  Christ,  locate  the  Happy  Isles, 
the  abode  of  departed  heroes,  beyond  the  dark,  deep 
ocean.* 

"  Those  who  have  the  courage  to  remain  steadfast 
thrice  in  each  life,  and  to  keep  their  souls  altogether 


*  Odyssey,  B.  iv.  1.  5(51,  etc.,  ap. 
Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  13. 

2  Odyssey,  B.  iv.  1.  7fi5  ;  cf.  H. 
H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  67 ;  Bailly, 
p.  43. 


*  The  History,  vol.  i.  p.  15. 

*  W.  D.  Cooley,  The  History,  vol. 
i.  p.  25 ;  Winsor,  vol.  i.  13. 


'i' 


120       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


ili 


M  i 


>',    I 


Mi 


I 


from  wrong,"  Pindar  sang,  "  pursue  the  road.^  Jupi- 
Jber  to  t]»p  pnstip  ftF_Snjvnrn/'  in  the  northeaster  npHrfs' 
of  America,  "  where  o'ertKe  Isles  of  the  Blest  ocean 
^feeaes-ilow,  and  flowers  gleam  with  gold,  some  of  the 
land  on  glistering  trees,  while  others  the  water  feeds, 
and  with  bracelets  of  these  they  entwine  their  hands 
and  make  crowns  for  their  heads."  ^ 

The  Islands  of  the  Blest  were  never  lost  to  human 
memory  nor  to  literature  until  the  latest  discovery  of 
the  Western  Continent ;  they  remained  for  the  Celtic 
and  other  European  nations,  until  their  conversion  to 
Christianity,  the  longed-for  home  of  a  happier  life  here- 
after. 

These  Happy  Isles  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  our 
continent,  if  not~the'South  American  main-land  itself, 
were  visited  eight  hundred  years  before  the  Christian 
era  by  the  celebrated  navigator  Hanno,  if  we  may  be- 
lieve his  IlspiTtXovg,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  after 
having  passed  the  pillars  of  Hercules  or  Strait  of  Gib- 
raltar, and  having  left  the  African  coast,  he  sailed 
directly  to  the  West  for  the  space  of  thirty  days,  and 
then  met  with  land.^ 

America's  northern  parts,  suggested  by  Homer's  land 
of  the  Cimmerians,  are  more  clearly,  though  confusedly 
still,  indicated  by  a  relatively  recent  writer, — namely, 
by  Plutarch,  who,  during  the  first  century  of  our  era, 
rela^^8rTii~his  dialogue  "  De  Facie  in  Orbe  Lunse,"  or 
The  Face  on  the  Moon's  J^isferpwhanthe  learn^cTcon^ 
sider  to  be  traditions  of  most  ancient  Greek  mythology,^ 
and  should  therefore  find  a  place  among  the  testimonies 
of  the  oldest  writers. 


*  Pindar,  Olynip.,  ii.  66-85, 
Paley's  translation.  See  also  Eu- 
ripides, Helena,  ap.  Winsor,  vol. 
i.  p.  13. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  195. 


'  Von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i. 
p.  191,  seq.;  Gravier,  p.  xxviii,  i^eq.; 
Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  2.3 ;  O'Donoghue, 
p.  306,  and  already  tlie  geographer 
Ortelius. 


jffhg»^M-,n'.:^^ 


NOTIONS   OF    AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE.       121 


The  island  Ogygia,  says  Plutarch,  lies  at  a  distance 
of  five  days  navigation  west  of  jQreat  Britain  ;  and  far- 
ther, in  the  same  direction  of  the  suinnfer's  setting  sun, 
or  west-nortliwest,  at  equal  distances  of  three  more 
days'  voyages,  are  situated  three  other  islands,  in  one  of 
which  Jupiter  has  imprisoned  and  chained  with  the 
bonds  of  an  everlasting  sleep  his  conquered  antagonist, 
the  god  Saturn.  Farther  still,  at  five  thousand  stadia 
from  Ogygia,  but  closer  to  the  last  of  the  other  islands, 
is  located  the  great  mysterious  continent  that  encom- 
passes the  ocean.  The  Cronian  Sea,  which  here  forms  a 
gulf  as  large  as  the  ''Caspian  Lake,  is  so  smooth  and 
shallow,  so  full  of  mu(T7of  sancWbaiiks  and  reefs,  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  cross  it  but  in  rowing  vessels ; 
of  old  it  was  thought,  he  adds,  that  this  sea  was  all 
frozen.^ 

Plutarch's  "Hnsipog  stretched  much  farther  to  the 
North  than  the  Eastern  Continent,  his  own  Olxovfisvyi ; 
and  its  inhabitants  pretended  that  their  country  was 
the  world's  main-land,  while  they  call  us  islanders,  says 
the  Cheronean  philosopher,  because  we  are  surrounded 
by  the  ocean.^  This  last  remark,  simple  as  it  may  ap- 
pear, is  fraught  with  conclusions  of  such  an  interesting 
nature  that  a  student  will  readily  forego  chronological 
order,  in  search  of  confirmation  of  Plutarch's  statement, 
which,  indeed,  we  find  already  expressed  by  the  Roman 
orator. 

Cicero,  who  admitted  a  second  inhabited  continent 

interpreted  by  Macrobius  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth 

century  after  Christ  as  corresponding  with  North  and 

South  Americ%^^  places  in  the  mouth  of  its  people  the 

"bua&tihg  words,  "  All  the  land  inhabited  by  you  is  but 

•  Von  Humboldt,  Exainen,  t:  i.     p.  198 ;  Gravier,  p.  xxix ;  Southall, 
pp.  193,  195 ;  Gravier,  p.  xxix.  p.  21. 

^  Von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.         '  Edw.  J.  Payne,  p.  38. 


122       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


a  small  island,"  "  Omnis  enim  terra  quae  colitur  a 
vobis,  parva  quaedam  insula  est."  ^  This  expression  of 
national  pride  and  probably  a  physical  truth  was  re- 
corded, centuries  before,  by  an  author  who  probably 
was  not  the  first  to  repeat  an  opinion  which  belonged  to 
a  system  of  Hellenic  legends  of  the  highest  antiquity, 
says  the  leafSed  von  Tlumboldt? 

Of  the  works  of  Theopompus,  who  wrote  in  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ,  some  important  fragments 
were  preserved  byStrabo,  and  in  the  "  Varite  His- 
torise"  or  Various  Hislorles  of  ^lianus  Claudius,"'  in 
which  the  original  author  likewise  asserts  that  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Lybia  are  but  islands  surrounded  by  the 
ocean,  beyond  which  lies  a  continent  of  immense 
magnitude.  '  "" 

The^uJfcious  editor  Perizonius  remarks,  on  the  occa- 
sion of  this  statement,  that  the  ancients  have  doubtless, 
as  through  a  dark  cloud,  seen  something  of  America, 
by  means  of  Egyptian  and  Carthaginian  traditions  and 
by  reasoning  on  the  form  and  location  of  our  globe ;  * 
but  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  ancient  theory  in 
regard  to  the  relative  extent  of  both  landed  hemispheres 
should,  in  spite  of  all  these  authors'  narratives,  be  cred- 
ited to  scientists  of  the  Old  World. 

If  it  is  thus  a  rational  conclusion  that  aboriginal 
American  geographers  instructed  the  learned  of  the 
other  hemisphere  in  the  world's  universal  cosmography, 
we  are  entitled  to  propose  two  not  impertinent  and  im- 
portant questions :  What  grounds  did  ancient  Ameri- 
cans have  to  assert  that  their  continent  was  xar'  s^ox^v 
or,  by  antonomasia,  ^Ae jimutinent  of  the  worjd  ?     Had 


*  Somniuin  Scipionis,  cap.  vi. 
'  Exainen,  t.  i.  p.  114. 

'  Lib.  iii.  cap.  xviii. 

*  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  x.  p.  56 ; 
.^lian,  edit.  Lugdun,  1701,  p.  217 ; 


von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  p. 
199  ;  De  Costa,  The  Pre-columbian 
Discovery,  p.  10 ;  Gravier,  p.  xxxi 
and  n.  1,  ibid.  ;  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p. 
197. 


NOTIONS   OF    AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE. 


123 


they  lived  at  the  epoch  in  which  the  slow  third  motion 
of  the  earth  allowed  them  a  favorable  temperature  to 
explore  the  vast  regions  of  the  North  Pole,  and  to  es- 
tablish what  is  still  suggested  by  the  eastern  shores  of 
Greenland,  John  Mayen,  and  Spitzbergen  Islands,  that 
our  continent  formed  an  immense  half-moon  around 
the  Old  World,  and,  to  a  great  extent,  justified  the  bold 
reports  of  ancient  European  geographers  ?  We  leave 
the  answer  to  this  former  complex  interrogation  to  the 
hardy  explorers  who,  in  our  own  days,  brave  the  in- 
creasing difficulties  of  northern  discoveries ;  and  we  put 
the  latter  question,  intimated  by  the  foregoing  state- 
ment and  pertaining  more  directly  to  historical  science, 
— namely.  How  did  the  ancient  Americans  know  that 
the  Old  World  is  but  an  island  duly  surrounded  by 
water  ?  There  can  be  only  two  ways  of  explaining  this 
strange  fact.  The  learned  American  aborigines  must 
either  have  received  their  chorographic  information 
from  their  ancestors  who  immigrated  from  the  eastern 
insular  Oixovfievyj,  or  themselves  have  crossed  the  ocean 
stream  and  survey^a  the  eastern  hemisi^here ;  or,  at 
least,  have  come  in  contact  with  its  pristine  better 
geographers. 

This  latter  explanation  may  have  the  appearance  of 
a  daring  assumption ;  still  there  is  no  scarcity  of  good 
reasons  for  its  logical  support.  We  have  noticed 
already  the  probable  immigration  into  northwestern 
Europe  by  both  the  American  Kitchen -Middin^s  and 
the  Mound-builders.^  Plutarch  adds,  in  his  "  Dialogue 
of  the  Face  on  the  Moon's  Disk,"  that  primitive  Ameri- 
cans regularly  made  a.  voyage  to  European  parts  every 
thirty  years.  "  Every^jhirl^  ~yeai^,-*^~lrr'gays^^ 
the  planet   Saturn,  which  we^caH'$amjv,  and  they 


^  Supra,  pp.  55,  79,  seq. 


^ma 


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f  ■ 


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II 


124       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

'Nvxrovpog  or  Niglit-watch,  enters  the  sign  of  Taurus, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Cronian  continent  despatch  cer- 
tain representatives,  called  ©ewpctg  to  be  present  at  the 
feasts  which  take  place  on  that  occasion  in  the  island  of 
Ogygia."  vThe  mission  of  these  envoys  was  of  a  danger- 
ous cliaracter.  Their  first  destination  was  the  islands 
which  we  just  mentioned  as  lying  opposite  the  great 
continent,  inhabited  by  a  race  of  Greek  origin,  among 
whom  Hercules  had  restored  the  language  and  customs 
of  the  mother  country,  says  Plutarch.  Here,  for  thirty 
days,  the  sun  would  not  be  hidden  more  than  one  hour, 
and  during  this  short  night  there  would  be  light  suffi- 
cient to  catch  lice,  as  the  monk  Dicuil  afterwards  put 
it.  It  is  necessary  to  observe  that  this  particular  is 
indicative  of  Greenland  or  Iceland.  After  a  sojourn  of 
ninety  days  in  these  boreal  regions,  the  American  dele- 
gates availed  themselves  of  the  first  favorable  wind  to 
set  sail  again  for  the  end  of  their  voyage.  Lamprias 
heard  all  these  interesting  details  from  Scylla,  who  had 
received  them  from  a  stranger  arrived  in  Carthage 
from  the  Saturnian  Islands.^ 

The  Greek  colonies  of  the  northern  isles  are  ques- 
tionable, indeed,  and  we  may  have  our  doubts  as  to  the 
regular  visits  of  Americans  to  the  dubious  island  of 
Ogygia ;  yet  it  would  be  hypercritical  to  reject  Plu- 
tarch's authority  altogether.  Von  Humboldt  ^  does  not 
deny  that  mythological  reports  of  pristine  information 
have  exercised  a  great  iiiiiuence  upon  the  positive  geo- 
graphical science  of  classic  Greece  and  Rome,  a  science 
which,  when  rightly  understood,  is  as  respectable  for  its 
relative  accuracy  as  for  its  antiquity  ;  and  he  seems  to 
admit  that  the  Cheronean  philosopher's  statements  were 


'  Von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i. 
pp.  199-201  ;  Gravier,  p.  xxix  ;  Baa- 
tian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  440. 


Examen,  t.  i.  pp.  192,  193. 


NOTIONS   OF    AMEKICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE.       125 


founded  on  tlie  reports  of  Atlantic  Ocean  sailors  no  less 
than  on  (ireek  ancient  tradition.  Whichever  the 
jjrounds  of  Plutarch's  statements  may  be,  the  state- 
ments themselves  singularly  agree  with  geographical 
realities  ;  his  ecjuidistant  islands  are  clearly  the  Faroes, 
Iceland,  and  Greenland  ;  his  gulf,  large  as  the  Caspian 
Sea,  corres[)onds  with  the  waters  that  stretch  out  be- 
tween Cape  Farewell  and  Labrador  ;  the  difficulties  and 
dangefs^eneouhtered  there  remind  us  of  the  obstacles 
and  perils  that  beset  navigation  in  those  regions  to-day, 
and  his  description  of  Iceland  or  Greenland  summer 
nights  is  evidence  that  the  Cronian  sea  had  been 
ploughed  by  Mediterranean  vessels. 

These  topographic  remarks  lead  us  to  incidentally 
notice  that  the  name  of  one  of  America's  principal 
boundaries,  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  quite  familiar  to  later 
writers,  such  as  Diodorus  of  Sicily,  Strabo,  and  Pliny, 
was  mentioned  already  in  the  fifth  century  before  \ 
Christ  by  Euripides  and  by  Herodotus, — *H  l^w  aryiXeo)v\ 

If  just  now  we  paid  attention  to  the  worth  of  Plu- 
tarch's evidence  in  regard  to  American  ancient  history, 
we  ought  to  be  more  particular  in  discussing  the  credi- 
bility of  an  author  much  more  important,  on  account 
of  both  his  greater  antiquity  and  the  larger  amount  of 
his  interesting  information,  Solon  is  quoted  sometimes 
as  a  writer  bearing  on  the  history  of  our  continent,  but 
the  testimony  which  we  may  have  inherited  from  him 
has  come  to  us  through  the  pen  qf  Plato  or  Aristocles, 
who  wrote  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century  before 
our  era. 

The  authenticity  of  Plato's  writings  is  beyond  all 
question,  nor  was  there  ever  any  doubt  raised  as  to  the 


>  Bailly,  p.  43  ;  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  438. 


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126        HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


credibility  of  the  great  philosopher's  statements ;  but, 
owing  likely  to  the  ignorance  of  the  scientists  ^f  our 
era,  who  were  not  sufficiently  prepared  to  receive  his 
duTtn^egarding  our  continent,  those  of  his  works  that 
treat  of  America  have  been  subject  to  the  most  widely 
diiferent  interpretations.  The  famous  humanist,  Mar- 
silio  Ficino,^  remarks  already  that  some  writers  before 
him — the  Syrian  Porphyrins,  Proclus,  and  even  Origen 
— considered  Plato's  "  Timseus"  and  "  Critias"  as  alle- 
gorical compositions,  and  Konrad  Kretschmer'*  adduced 
quite  lately  Strabo  and  the  Neo-Platonists  as  authorities 
for  his  own  opinion, — namely,  that  Plato's  description 
of  the  Atlantis  is  a  myth.  The  great  geographer, 
von  Humboldt,*  is  reserved  in  expressing  his  opinion, 
yet  he  seems  inclined  to  believe  that  the  Athenian 
philosopher  has  spoken  of  the  Atlantis  as  of  a  known 
reality 

America's  ancient  name  in  Europe  was  certainly 
no  new  invention  of  Plato,  who,  no  matter  what  the 
source  of  his  information  may  have  been,  had  evidently 
learned  of  the  western  world,  of  the  continent,  from 
the  writings  of  his  predecessors.  The  information 
which  he  received  in  regard  to  our  hemisphere  from 
the  ancient  savants  can  hardly  leave  a  doubt  that 
Plato's  "  Critias"  is,  if  not  a  strictly  historical  account, 
a  relation,  at  f^t,  founded  on  fact  and  historical  truth. 
It  is  no  wonder  if  suspicions  of  allegory  and  fiction 
should  have  arisen  during  the  centuries  i'  which  the 
knowledge  of  America's  very  existence  had  almost 
vanished  from  Europe,  but  at  all  times,  and  especially 
as  science  increased,  have  the  learned  considered  the 
great  philosopher  as  an  adept  of  ancient  American 
history. 


»  p.  1097. 

» S.  156,  159,  160. 


'  Examen,  t.  i.  pp.  113,  115. 


V. 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA   IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      127 


Not  to  speak  of  other  ancient  authors  to  whom  we 
shall  refer  in  the  sequel,  we  may  remark  that  the 
Jewish  ^writer  Philc  (20  B.C.-54  a.d.)  and  the  Plato- 
nist  Crantor'wefe  inclined  to  admit  the  literal  interpre- 
tation of  Plato's  Atlantidic  description.^  '^^ertullian 
(second  century  a.c.)''  and  Arnobius  (four<^h  century 
A.c.)^  agreed  with  the  pagan  savant  Ammianus  Mar- 
cellinus  (third  century  a.c.)  in  admitting  the  former 
existence  of  Plato's  island,  Atlantis ;  and  we  have 
noticed*  that  Cosmas  Indicopleustes  believed  our 
continent  to  be  the  cradle  of  the  human  race.  It 
would  not  be  difl&cult  to  find  several  authors  of  the 
first  Christian  centuries  and  of  the  middle  ages 
who  relied  on  Plato's  narrative  in  their  prophecies  of 
discoveries  in  the  mysterious  West,  and  Christopher 
Columbus  himself  was  undoubtedly  encouraged  by  his 
belief  inthe  objective  truth  of  Plato's  "Timaeus"  and 
"  Critias ;"  but  after  our  continent  wasligain  discovered 
"lif  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  almost  every  Euro- 
pean scientist  accepted  the  literal  interpretation  of  the 
Athenian  philosopher's  description  of  countries  in  and 
beyond  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  SuflBce  it  to  mention, 
among  many  others,  Ortelius  and  Mercator,  who  be- 
lieved that  America  is  the  ancient  Atlantis,  as  also  did 
their  contemporaries,  Gomara,^  Father  Jos^  de  Acosta,^ 
and  Las  Casas,  who  writes  a  whole  chapter  on  Plato's 
Atlantis  as  being  America.^  Of  the  same  opinion  were 
William  de  Postel,  who  sustained  Plato's  statements 
by  Mexican  etymology  ;  Wyfliet,^  Bacon  of  Verulam,* 


1  Kretfichmer,  S.  160,  who  cites 
Proclus  as  another  abettor  of  the 
literal  interpretation  of  Plato. 

'  Apologeticus,  cap.  40. 

•  AdversuB  Gentee,  lib,  i. 

*  Supra,  p.  21. 

'Historia  de  las  Indiaa,  Sara- 
gossa,  1563,  fo.  119. 


•Bk.  i.  ch.  12,  p.  36;  ch.  22, 
p.  64. 

'  Cf.  Justin  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p. 
43. 

*  Historic  Universelle  des  Indes 
Orientales  et  Occidentales,  p.  60. 

»  Nova  Atlantis,  1638,  p.  364  ;  cf. 
Konrad  Kretachmer,  S.  166. 


128       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

Cluver,  who  thought  that  Plato's  narrative  was  due  to 
geographical  knowledge  of  America ;  ^  George  Horn,"* 
and  the  Swiss  Bircherodus,  who  concluded  a  lengthy 
discussion  in  favor  of  the  literal  interpretation  of  Plato. 
At  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  Nicolas  and 
William  Sanson  published  a  map  of  America,  with 
the  name  of  Atlantis  Island,  divided  among  the  ten 
heirs  of  Atlas,'^  and  Robert  of  Vaugondy,  after  them, 
gives  the  title  of  Old  World  to  the  delineation  of  our 
western  hemisphere.*  Stallbaum,  in  his  learned  edi- 
tion of  Plato's  works,*  and  Paul  Gaffarel  are  effective 
defenders  still  of  the  old  philosopher's  knowledge  of 
the  American  continent. 

The  infidel  J-  illy  ^  wrote  to  his  incredulous  friend 
de  Voltaire,  "  Plato,  when  yet  a  child,  listened  to  his 
gran(ifather  Critias,  then  ninety  years  old,  who,  when 
young,  had  been  taught  by  Solon,  a  friend  of  his  father. 
The  report  is,  therefore,  based  on  a  clear  and  well- 
defined  tradition ;  nor  can  there  be  a  more  sacred 
source  of  history  more  deserving  of  our  confidence." 

Our  erudite  historian  Winsor  declares  Plato's  At- 
lantis to  be  a  myth ;  but  the  reader  of  his  learned  dis- 
cussion ''  is  strongly  influenced  by  the  arguments  and 
authorities  set  forth  to  believe  as  truthful  and  correct 
the  contrary  opinion.^ 


! 


I 


•Works,   ed.   1739,   p.   667;    cf. 
Justin  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  43. 

*  De  Originibus  Americanis,  post 
initium. 

'  Novus  Orbis  sive  Atlant's  In- 
sula, Paris,  1689. 

*  Orbis  Vetus,  1762. 

'  Prolegomena  de  Critia,  vol.  vii. 
p.  99. 
•P.  25. 
'  Vol.  i.  p.  41,  geq. 

*  Winsor,  indeed,    produces  the 
following    authors    accepting    the 


narrative  of  Plato  as  simply  his- 
torical : 

Grantor,  Plato's  first  commen- 
tator. 

Proclus,  who  quotes  from  the 
"Ethiopic  History"  of  Marcellua 
a  statement  that,  according  to  cer- 
tain historians,  there  were  several 
islands  in  the  external  sea  sacred 
to  Proserpine,  and  also  three  others 
of  great  size,  one  consecrated  to 
Pluto,  one  to  Ammon,  and  another, 
the  middle  one,  a  thousand  stadia 


NOTIONS  OF   AMERICA   IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      129 


It  may  please  our  readers  to  see  the  venerable  source 
of  Plato's  information  exposed  to  them  in  its  original 
simplicity  and  purity. 


in  size,  devoted  to  Neptune ;  and 
the  inhabitains'preserved  the  re-" 
membrance  of  the  Atlantic  Island 
which  once  existed  there  and  was 
truly  prodigiously  great,  and  which 
for  many  ages  had  dominion  over 
all  the  islands  in  the  Atlantic  Sea. 

Poseidonius  (135-51  B.C.)  and 
Strabo,  Geogr.,  lib.  ii.,  If  3,  6. 

Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  ii.  92. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus,  xvii.  7, 
fIS. 

In  the  "Scholia"  to  Plato's 
"  Republic"  it  is  said  that  at  the 
great  Panathenea  there  was  carried 
in  procession  a  "  peplum,"  a  richly 
embroidered  robe  of  Minerva,  or- 
namented with  representations  of 
the  contest  between  the  giants  and 
the  gods;  while  on  the  "peplum" 
carried  at  the  minor  Panathenaic 
games  could  be  seen  the  war  of  the 
Athenians  against  the  Atlantides, 
Even  von  Humboldt  accepted  this 
as  an  independent  testimony  in 
favor  of  the  antiquity  of  the  story. 

Tertullian,  De  Pallio,  2;  Apol., 
p.  32. 

Arnobius,  Adversus  Gentes,  i.  5. 

Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  ed.  Mont- 
faucon,  i.  114-125  ;  ii.  131,  136-138  ; 
iv.  186-192  ;  xii.  340. 

Image  du  Monde,  thirteenth 
century,  ap.  Graffarel  in  Revue  de 
G^ographie,  vi. 

A  number  of  scholars  have  en- 
deavored to  And  in  the  hydrogri- 
phy  of  the  Atlantic,  or,  aa  indicated 
by  the  resemblances  between  the 
flora,  fauna,  and  civilization  of 
America  and  of  the  Old  World,  ad- 
ditional rsasons  for  believing  that 
such  an  island  like  Plato's  Atlantis 
had  once  existed  and  had  disap- 
I.— 9 


peared  after  serving  as  a  bridge  by 
which  communication  between  the 
continents  was  for  a  time  carried 
on.  We  may  add  that  the  conclu- 
sions of  those  studies  have  been 
singularly  strengthened  of  late  by 
the  result  of  the  Atlantic  soundings. 

Winsor  adds  Gomara. 

Guillaume  de  Postel. 

George  Horn. 

Bircherod,  Bircherodii  Schedi- 
asma  de  Orbe  Novo  non  Novo,  Alt- 

dorf,  leas. 

Cellarius. 

The  Sansons  and  Vaugondy  ( 1669, 
1762). 

StaJlbaum,  Plato,  vii.  p.  99,  n.  e. 

Cluverius,  Introduct.,  ed.  1729,  p. 
667. 

Hyde  Clark,  Examination  of  the 
legend  of  Atlantis  in  reference  to 
proto-historic  communications  with 
America,  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Historical  Society,  iii.  pp. 
1-46. 

Blaskett,  Researches  into  the  Lost 
Histories  of  America,  p.  31. 

Ortelius  and  Mercator,  Thesau- 
rus Geogr.,  arts.  Atlantis,  Gadee, 
Gradirus. 

Taylor,  Introduction  to  the 
"Timffius." 

Bart,  de  las  Casas,  Historia  de 
las  Indies,  lib.  i.  cap.  viii. 

Kircher,  Thesaurus  Cieogr.,  art. 
Gadirus. 

Becman,  Portia  d'Urban,  Turne- 
fort,  De  la  Borde,  Bory  de  St.  Vin- 
cent. 

D'Avezac,  Isles  Africaines  de 
l'0c6an  Atlantique,  pp.  5-8. 

Carli,  Delle  lettere  Americane, 
ii.,  let.  vii.,  seq.  ;  xiii.,  »eq. 

Lyell. 


180       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   B£FOR£  COLUMBUS. 


i     I 


i 


/ 


"  Hermoo  atea :  He  (Critias)  has  told  as  what  he  has 
heard  long  ago,  and  I  wish,  Critias,  that  you  would  tell 
it  now  over  again/ 

"  Oritias :  I  shall  do  so,  if  it  pleases  also  our  third 
companion,  Timeeus. 

"  TimcBus:  It  pleases  me,  of  course. 

"  Oritias :  Hear  then,  O  Socrates,  a  history  very 
strange,  indeed  ;  yet  altogether  true  ;  as  it  was  once  told 
by  Solon,  the  wisest  of  the  seven  wise.  Solon  was 
familiar  with,  and  a  fast  friend  of,  Dropidas,  our  great- 
grandfather, as  he  himself  often  states  in  his  songs. 
Now,  he  said  to  our  grandfather,  Critias,  as  the  old 
man  related  to  us  in  his  turn,  that  great  and  wonderful 
had  been  the  ancient  deeds  of  the  city  of  Athens, 
although  obliterated  now  by  long  ages  and  the  ruin  of 
nations  ;  and  one  especially,  the  greatest  of  all,  which  it 
behooves  to  recite  now." 

We  may  be  allowed  to  insert  here  a  remark  of  the 
scholarly  Marsilio  Ficino.^     The  story  here  told  is  no 


Braaseur  de  Bourbourg,  H.  H. 
Bancroft,  Le  Plongeon,  Retzius, 
SmithBonian  Report,  1859,  p.  266. 

Forbes  (1846),  Heer  (1856),  Un- 
ger  (1860),  Kuntze,  W.  Stephen 
Mitchell  (1877),  J.  Starkie  Gardner 
(1878),  Edw.  H.  Thompson  (1879). 

Gaffarel,  6tude  sur  les  Rapports 
de  1' Atlantis  et  de  I'Ancien  Conti- 
nent avant  Colomb,  Paris,  1869 ; 
Revue  de  G^ographie,  t.  vi.,  vii. 

D.  P.  de  Novo  y  Colson,  Ultima 
Teoria  sobre  la  Atlantida,  1881. 

Winchell  (1880). 

Ignatius  Donnelly,  Atlantis,  New 
York,  1882. 

Dr.  Guest,  Origines  Celticse,  Lon- 
don, 1883,  i.  119,  seq. 

A.  J.  Weise,  The  Diecoveries  of 
America,  New  York,  1882. 

In  opposition   to   such    xaA.  so 


many  authors,  Winsor  supports  the 
opinion  of  Plato's  Atlantis  being  a 
sheer  fable,  by  the  authority  of 

Longinus,  of  ol 

Acosta  and  Cellarius,  Notitiee 
Orbis  Antiquse,  lib.  i.  cap.  xi. 

D'Anville,  Bartoli,  Gosselin, 
Ukert. 

Humboldt  [who  is  rather  in 
favor  of  the  contrary  persuasion]. 

Martin,  in  his  work  on  the 
"Timaeus." 

Professor  Jowett,  Bunburg, 
Archer-Hind. 

Encyclopaedia  Britannica. 

But  Winsor  affords  no  special 
argument  in  favor  of  this  latter 
opinion. 

^  See  Document  III.,  a. 

'  P.  1097,  Introd.  ad  "  Critias  vel 
Atlanticus." 


NOTIONS  OF   AMERICA   IN   ANCIENT  GREECE.      131 

fiction,  but  history,  he  says;  first,  because  Plato  is  used 
to  give  the  name  of  fable  to  whatever  he  invents ;  while 
here  he  assures  us  that  his  report  is  historical,  as  he 
also  states  in  his  "  Timeeus,"  where  he  warns  the  reader 
not  to  disbelieve  the  facts  because  of  their  wonderful- 
ness ;  second,  because  he  is  most  careful  in  describing 
the  plain  source  of  his  own  information.  In  fact,  he 
continues  thus : 

"Socrates:^  You  say  well,  but  what  then  is  the 
exploit,  which  Critias  has  narrated  after  Solon's 
authority  ? 

"  Critias :  I  will  tell  the  ancient  recital  as  I  heard 
it  when  a  boy.  Critias  was  at  the  time,  as  he  said, 
already  close  to  ninety  years  of  age,  and  I  was  about 
ten  years  old,  .  .  .  and  I  remember  perfectly  well.  O 
Amynander,  had  Solon  completed  the  history  which 
he  imported  here  from  Egypt,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that 
neither  Hesiod  nor  Homer  nor  any  other  poet  would 
have  become  more  renowned  than  he." 

We  must  observe  that  Plato's  "  Critias"  or  descrip- 
tion of  Atlantis  is  not  a  finished  work.  Did  he  stop 
his  narrative  where  Solon  stopped  before  him  ?  .  .  . 

Here  some  one  interrupted  the  slow  old  man  by 
saying,  "  But  what,  then,  is  that  history,  O  Critias  ? 
Tell  it  all  from  the  beginning,"  said  he ;  "  what  and 
how  Solon  narrated  it,  and  by  whom  it  was  listened  to 
as  truths  .  .  . 

"  Oritias :  There  is  in  Egypt  a  very  large  city,  Sais. 
Solon  said  that,  having  travelled  there,'^  he  was  highly 
honored  by  its  inhabitants,  and  that,  after  having  in 
quired  into  antiquity  from  its  most  experienced  priests, 


w^"^ 


*  See  Document  III.,  a.  himself  (von  Humboldt,  Examen, 

*  Some  are  of  the  opinion  tlmt  t.  i. ) ;  but  this  gratuitous  supposi- 
Plato,  having  visited  Egypt,  tion  hardly  agrees  with  Plato's 
brought  his  infonuation  from  Sais  general  character  of  uprightness. 


777^ 


I 

i    I 


t 


132       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

he  had  found  out  that  neither  he  nor  any  other  Greek 
knew  anything  at  all,  so  to  say,  of  ancient  lore.  He 
said  that  one  day,  to  attract  them  into  a  conversation 
upon  ancient  memories,  he  commenced  to  speak  of 
Athens's  oldest  records,  and  that  one  very  old  priest 
answered,  O  Solon,  Solon  !  you  Greeks,  you  are  children 
always,  there  is  not  an  old  man  in  Greece. 

"  Hearing  this,  Solon  asked.  How  can  you  say  that  ? 

"  He  sai^-  You  all  are  young  of  mind,  you  have  not 
the  least  idea  of  antiquity  from  ancient  reports,  no 
science  at  all  of  olden  times.  On  the  contrary,  all 
that  is  saved  of  pristine  records  can  be  read  with  us. 
.  .  .  Anything,  indeed,  that  has  happened  with  you  or 
with  us,  or  in  any  other  place,  and  is  reported  to  us ; 
anything  beautiful  or  grand,  or  events  remarkable  for 
any  other  reason  that  have  taken  place  anywhere,  all 
that  is  of  old  written  down  and  kept  in  the  temples 
of  this  country,  .  .  .  while,  O  Solon,  the  genealogies 
upon  which  you  expatiate,  according  to  your  traditions, 
fall  little  short  of  childish  tales." 

Let  it  be  noticed,  in  passing  by,  that  the  author  was 
aware  of  the  diflference  between  fact  and  fiction,  and 
that,  while  he  reports  the  arguments  of  the  Egyptian 
priests  to  undeceive  Solon  in  regard  to  Athenian  his- 
tory, he  would  not  likely,  a  serious  philosopher  as  he 
is,  try  to  force  upon  his  reader  imaginary  statements, 
set  forth  as  actual  truth,  regarding  an  important  part 
of  the  world.  , 

After  having  given  in  his  "  Timseus"  the  information 
that  he  wished  to  impart,  he  concludes  by  the  following 
particulars,  which  cannot  but  increase  our  confidence 
in  his  historical  truthfulness  : 

"  Such,  O  Socrates,  are  the  statements  of  the  older 
Critias,  according  to  the  recitals  of  Solon,  which  I 
summarized  after  his  rehearsal,  ...  for  what  we  have 


I 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA   IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      133 


learned  in  childhood  we  remember  wonderfully  well, 
and  I  would  be  altogether  surprised  if  I  should  have 
forgotten  anything  of  what  I  eagerly  listened  to  so 
long  ago.  I  heard  then  with  so  much  pleasure  and 
amusement  the  words  of  the  old  man  who  taught  me, 
goodheartedly  answering  my  numerous  questions,  that 
they  remained  in  my  memory  like  an  indelible  en- 
caustic writing.  ...  I  am  able,  O  Socrates,  not  only 
to  give  a  summary  account,  but  to  narrate  the  particu- 
lars as  I  heard  them. 

"  Socrates :  And  what  other  narrative  should  be  pre- 
ferred to  this,  which  is  all  the  more  remarkable /or  not        f 
being  an  invented  myth  but  a  history  absolutely  true  f* 

In  his  work,  "  Critias  or  Atlantis,"  Plato  introduces 
the  same  Critias,  who  says, — ^ 

"  If  we  shall  have  remembered  rightly  and  com- 
municated the  words  once  spoken  by  the  priests  and 
brought  over  here  by  Solon,  it  is  clear  enough,  we 
think,  to  this  company  that  we  shall  have  sufficiently 
accomplished  our  duty.  This  now  should  be  done  at 
once,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  wait  any  longer." 

We  will  now  listen  to  the  younger  Critias  recounting    '^v^ 
in  both  Plato's  "  Timseus"  and  "  Critias"  what  the  older 
had  learned  from  Solon.     It  is  as  follows : 

"  The  wise  man  [Solon]  had  been  struck  at  the  re- 
buke of  the  old  priest  of  Sais,  and,  pressed  by  all  his 
desire  of  learning,  he  begged  the  priests  to  enter  in 
a  correct  and  coherent  form  upon  the  history  of  the 
ancient  citizens  of  Athens.** 

"  Then  the  priest  said.  We  are  not  envious,  O  Solon, 
and  I  will  tell  for  your  sake  and  for  the  sake  of  your  city. 

"  The  annals  of  this  our  commonwealth,  since  eight 
thousand  years,  are  written  down  in  our  holy  books. 


'L 


-t"^ 


■^ 


y 


>->> 


*  See  Document  III.,  6. 


« Ibid.,  c. 


134       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


\1 


The  writings  state  how  your  city  at  one  time  destroyed 
a  power  that  insolently  ran  over  the  whole  of  both 
Europe  and  Asia  and  had  fiercely  rushed  forth  out  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

"  And  let  us  first  of  all  recall  to  mind  that  it  is,  in 
round  numbers,  nine  thousand  years  since  war  was 
declared  between  those  who  lived  beyond  the  Pillars  of 
Hercules  and  all  those  who  inhabited  this  side."  * 

Before  relating  the  catastrophic  issue  of  this  struggle, 
as  interesting  as  gigantic,  Critias  gives  us  an  almost 
complete  description  of  our  hemisphere  in  prehistoric 
times. 

"  Then,"  he  continues,*  "  that  ocean" — to  wit,  the  At- 
lantic— "  was  navigable ;  it  contained  an  island  oppo- 
site the  mouth  which  you  call,  as  you  say,  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules.  The  island  itself  was  greater  than  Asia 
[then  known,  i.e.,  Asia  Minor]  and  Lybia  [then  known, 
i.e.,  Berbera]  together.  From  this  island  the  voyagers 
at  the  time  had  access  to  the  other  islands  of  that  ocean, 
and  from  these  latter  islands  to  the  whole  great  conti- 
nent lying  close  beyond  them  and  around  that  other 
sea,  the  true  sea  ;  for,  the  waters,  like  those  within  the 
mouth  of  which  we  spoke,  seem  to  be  but  small  ponds 
with  some  inlet,  but  that  other  sea  can  justly  be  called 
the  sea,  and  that  land  which  surrounds  it  can,  in  all 
truth,  be  named  the  continent." 

These  last  bold  assertions  perfectly  agree  with  the 
statements  of  ancient  Greek  mythology  as  recorded  by 
Plutarch,^  and  of  Theopompus ;  *  and  the  whole  of 
Plato's  system  of  American  geography  becomes  evident 
as  soon  as  we  admit  his  following  paragraph,  the  prob- 


*  The  learned  fairly  agree  that 
these  Egyptian  years  were  not  our 
solar  years,  that  each  was  likely  no 
longer  than  one  of  our  four  sea- 


sons.    (Bailly,  p.  27;  H.  d'Arboia 
de  Joubainville,  ch.  ii.  p.  16. ) 

*  See  Document  IV.,  o. 
"  Supra,  p.  121. 

*  Supra,  pp.  122,  123. 


\'' 


NOTIONS  OF   AMERICA    IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      136 


ability,  not  to  say  the  credibility,  of  which  we  will 
expose  farther  on. 

"  The  island  Atlantis  now  submerged  through  the 
effect  of  earthquakes  has  become  a  region  of  mud,  and 
an  obstacle  for  those  who  sail  from  here  to  reach  the 
high  seas." 

We  are  not  the  first  nor  are  we  likely  to  be  the  last 
to  admit  the  concordance  between  Plato's  description 
and  geographical  data.  Herrera'  states  that  many 
considered  Critias's  "  narrow  mouth"  as  the  Strait  of 
Gibraltar,  his  "  ocean"  as  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  his 
"  great  island"  as  the  once  existing  Atlantis,  his  *'  far- 
ther islands"  as  the  Leeward  and  the  Windward 
Islands,  his  **  great  continent"  opposite  the  smaller 
islands  as  the  Western  Continent,  and,  finally,  his  "  true 
sea"  as  the  South  Sea  or  Pacific  Ocean.  Acosta"*  and 
Charlevoix^  propose  the  same  interpretation,  which 
since  then  has  obtained  more  and  more  credit  in  the 
learned  world. 

Plato's  statement  of  the  political  power  of  the  Atlan- 
tis contains  a  further  illustration  of  his  general  geog- 
raphy : 

"  In  this  island  Atlantis,"  he  says,  "  the  kings  exer-    o, 
cised  a  great  and  wonderful  power,  being  the  masters     '^'-c 
of  the  whole  of  the  island  itself,  of  other  islands,  and 
of  parts  of  the  continent.     Besides  that,  they  were  also 
at  the  head  of  the  people  of  Lybia  as  far  as  Egypt,  •  "M^ 
and  of  Europe  as  far  as  the  Tyrrhenian  Sea." 

Critias  further  continues  by  giving  a  more  particular 
description  of  the  island  Atlantis,  from  which  we  select 
a  few  interesting  details  :  * 

"  Those  kings,"  he  says,  "  in  consequence  of  their 
authority,  received  many  things  imported  from  with- 


^< 


/ 


^> 


^  Dec.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  i.  p.  2. 
»  Bk.  i.  ch.  xii.  p.  36. 


»  T.  i.  p.  87. 

*  See  Document  IV. ,  6. 


I 


136       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

out ;  but  the  island  itself  furnished  the  greater  part  of 
their  comforts  of  life.  And  first,  all  the  solid  metals 
that  are  dug  out  from  the  mines  and  all  those  that  are 
fusible,  besitles  that  which  we  now  only  know  by  name, 
but  was  then  abundantly  dug  up  from  the  bowels  of 
the  earth  in  many  places  of  the  island, — namely,  the 
species  of  metal  designated  as  orichalch,  the  mot 
precious,  with  the  exception  of  gold,  in  the  estimation 
of  the  people  of  those  times.  The  forest  affords  all  that 
is  necessary  for  architectural  purposes,  and  the  prairie 
yields  abundantly  what  is  required  for  the  food  of  both 
domestic  and  wild  animals.  There  is  also,  on  the 
island,  a  very  large  species  of  elephants,  and  there  is 
food  for  all  other  animals  that  live  in  the  marshes,  by 
the  lakes,  and  along  the  rivers,  as  well  as  for  all  those 
that  roam  on  the  mountains  and  on  the  plains.  There 
are  also  great  numbers  of  the  largest  and  most  vora- 
cious beasts. 

"  Besides  all  that,  there  are  all  the  odoriferous  plants 
that  the  earth  produces  anywhere  to-day ;  its  soil 
brings  forth  all  that  pertains  to  roots,  to  cereals,  to 
wood,  to  distilling  juices,  to  flowers  or  fruits,  and  it  all 
thrives  well.  It  further  yields  cultivated  and  dry  fruit, 
which  we  use  as  victuals,  and  all  the  rest  that  is  used  for 
food,  and  whose  various  species  we  generally  call  vege- 
tables. There  are  also  to  be  found  all  the  trees  that 
produce  beverage,  eatables,  unguents,  as  well  as,  for  the 
sake  of  fun  and  pleasure,  the  shell  fruits,  such  as  chest- 
nuts, that  are  hard  to  preserve,  and  all  the  sweetmeats 
loved  by  the  workingman,  which  we  put  up  to  fully 
satisfy  our  appetite. 

"The  island  that  once,  in  those  days,  had  exist- 
ence under  the  sun,  holy,  beautiful,  and  admirable 
as  it  was,  brought  forth  all  these  things  in  infinite 
abundance." 


11 
4* 


I 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA    IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      137 

Other  ancient  authors  speak  equally  well  of  America ; 
but  what  these  do  not  say  let  us  continue  to  hear  from 
Critias : 

"  Gathering  all  those  riches  from  the  earth,"  he  adds, 
■**  they  erected  the  temples,  and  the  royal  residences, 
and  the  ports  and  the  navy-yards,  and  improved  all 
the  rest  of  the  country.  .  .  .  One  after  another,  in- 
heriting the  beautiful  structures,  always  excelled  his 
predecessor  as  Dv.  he  could,  until  their  dwelling-place 
looked  admirable,  for  both  the  greatness  and  the  beauty 
of  their  works." 

We  could  not  afford  to  copy  here  all  the  details  of 
Plato's  lengthy  description  of  the  capital  city,  but  we 
should  not  overlook  the  picture  he  draws  of  its  great 
temple :  "  ?.'he  royal  buildings,"  he  says,  "  within  the  . 
fortress  were  erected  in  this  manner :  There,  in  the 
centre,  stood  apnrt  the  sacred  and  inaccessible  temple  of 
the  goddess  Cliton  and  of  the  god  Neptune,  surrounded 
with  an  enclosure  of  gold,  within  which,  in  the  begin- 
ning, was  engendered  and  born  the  dynasty  of  the  ten 
kings,  and  where,  coming  together  from  the  ten  prov- 
inces, they  oflPered  yearly  sacrifices  in  honor  of  each  of 
them.  Neptune's  temple  was  one  stadium  [six  hundred  _ 
-and  seven  English  feet]  in  length,  and  three  hundrecT"^ 
feet  wide ;  its  height  was  in  proportion  to  its  other 
dimensions,  but  its  front  had  a  somewhat  barbaric 
appearance.  The  entire  outside  of  the  temple  was 
covered  with  silver,  with  the  exception  of  the  roofs, 
which  were  overlaid  with  gold.  As  for  the  interior, 
the  ceiling  was  of  ivory  variegated  with  gold  and  ori- 
ohalch,  and  all  the  rest — walls,  columns,  and  pave- 
ments— were  covered  with  orichalch.  The  statues  there 
erected  were  of  gold ;  that  of  the  god  was  standing  on 
a  chariot,  holding  the  reins  of  six  winged  steeds,  and  so 
tall  as  to  touch  the  very  ceiling.     Around  it  were  one 


138       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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P 


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(  n  i 
I .  I' ' 


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If 


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; 


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V 


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^^ 


hundred  Nereids  riding  their  dolphins  ;  for  such,  at  the 
time,  people  thought  their  number  to  be ;  and  many- 
other  statues  of  private  individuals  were  placed  near  by. 
Around  the  temple  on  the  outside  were  standing  the 
golden  images  of  all  the  women  and  of  all  the  men  who 
had  desco'ded  from  the  ten  kings,  and  many  other 
great  moh  aents  both  of  kings  and  of  private  individ- 
uals of  the  city  itself  and  of  all  the  provinces  under  its 
rule.  There  was  an  altar  there  also,  which  in  size  and 
workmanship  corresponded  with  the  edifice  itself,  and 
the  royal  buildings  near  by  were  in  proportion  to  the 
greatness  of  the  empire  and  to  the  beauty  of  the  sacred 
edifices."  ^ 

It  is  not  necessary  to  expatiate  on  the  bridges  of  tlie 
city,  on  its  aqueducts,  baths,  gymnasia,  and  race-tracks, 
which  its  people  had  built  for  usefulness  and  sport ; 
but  we  should  not  neglect  to  notice  that  "  its  dock-yards 
were  full  of  triremes  and  of  the  apparel  that  pertains 
to  them  ;  and  it  was  all  rigged  up  in  good  shape.  In 
the  neighborhood  of  the  port  were  living  a  multitude 
of  people  in  numerous  houses  built  closely  together. 
The  haven  and  the  largest  port  were  filled  with  ships, 
merchants  arrived  from  all  parts,  and  day  and  night 
one  could  hear  on  every  side  the  voices  and  shouting 
and  bustle  wf  the  throngs.  .  .  .^ 

*  The  whole  country  is  said  to  have  been  very  high 
and  cut  abruptly  from  the  ocean  ;  but  the  district  about 
the  city  is  all  a  plain  that  surrounds  the  city,  and  is 
itself  encircled,  down  to  the  sea,  by  low  mountains ;  it 
is  smooth  and  level,  of  an  oblong  shape,  measuring  to 
its  other  end  three  thousand  sta  iia  [that  is,  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty-eight  miles] ,  and  about  its  middle,  from 
the  sea  upward,  two  thousand  [or  two  hundred  and 


*  See  Document.  IV. ,  c. 


» Ibid.,  d. 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA   IN   ANCIENT   GREECE.      139 


thirty-eight  miles].  As  regards  the  whole  island,  it 
stretches  towards  tha  West,  with  its  mountains  exposed 
to  the  North.  And  in  these  mountains  it  has  many  and 
rich  agglomerations  of  neighbors.  ..." 

Did  the  Atlantis  of  Plato  extend  from  the  Madeira 
Islands  to  Cuba,  and  are  the  Azores  or  Flemish  Islands 
its  northern  mountain-tops?  Learned  men,  as  von 
Humboldt,^  and  Maltebrun,^  accuse  Solon  and  Plato  of 
inconsistency  or  contradiction  in  their  statements  of 
the  size  of  Atlantis, — once,  they  say,  declared  greater 
than  Asia  and  Africa  together,  and  once  set  forth  as 
being  two  thousand  by  three  thousand  stadia.  But 
these  authors,  in  all  other  respects  of  the  highest  au- 
thority, must  have  but  superficially  read  Plato's  "  Cri- 
tias,"  where  the  surveyor  clearly  distinguishes  between 
the  whole  island  and  the  plain  that  lay  around  its 
capital. 

"  Quadrilateral  as  it  was,  it  was,  in  the  main,  rec- 
tangular and  oblong ;  but  it  lost  this  shape  by  the 
digging  round  about  it  of  a  trench,  the  statement  of 
whose  depth,  width,  and  length  is  simply  incredible 
when  this  is  compared  with  all  other  works  of  human 
hands. 

"  It  was  established  that  the  ballot  should  designate 
each  officer  among  the  men  of  the  plain  who  were  fit 
for  war,  and  the  total  number  of  the  ballots  amounted 
to  sixty  thousand.  But  it  is  said  that  the  number  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  mountains  and  of  the  other  parts 
was  simply  infinite." 

Critias  describes  also  the  government  of  the  prehis- 
toric wept  n  empire:^  "We  must  now  acquaint  you 
with  the  government  of  these  enemies  of  our  city,  as  it 
was  established  from  the  beginning,  and,  if  we  have  not 


•  Examen,  t.  i.  p.  173. 

*  T.  i.  p.  73. 


See  Document  V.,  a. 


140       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


i 


\    ' 


I  '  R  & 


wx 


11 


lost  our  memory,  according  to  what  we  heard  when  yet 
a  child ;  for  with  you,  our  friends,  that  knowledge 
ought  to  be  in  common. 

"  Now  then,  Neptune,  having  by  the  casting  of  lots 
obtained  the  Atlantis,  established  there  his  progeny, 
born  from  a  mortal  woman  in  some  place  of  the  island. 
He  raised  five  male  twins,  and  having  divided  the 
whole  island  Atlantis  into  ten  parts,  he  assigned  to  the 
first-born  or  the  oldest,  Atlas  by  name,  the  maternal 
home  and  country  around  it,  which  was  the  largest  and 
the  best,  and  established  him  king  of  the  others,  whom 
he  made  governors,  giving  to  each  one  the  government 
of  many  people  and  of  much  country.  .  .  . 

"  All  these  and  their  descendants  lived  there  during 
many  generations,  reigning  over  numerous  other  islands 
of  the  ocean,  even  over  the  inhabitants  on  this  side  of 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  as  far  as  Egypt  and  the  Tyr- 
rhenian Sea,  as  we  said  before.  And  this  Atlantic  lin- 
eage waxed  numerous  and  otherwise  honorable,  and 
acquired  such  an  abundance  of  riches  as  never  before 
was  in  the  possession  of  any  other  kings  and  will  not 
easily  be  hereafter.  Anything  they  might  want  was 
procured  to  them,  whether  in  the  city  or  in  any  other 
part  of  the  country. 

"Their  relative  power  and  mutual  association  were 
'regulated  by  the  orders  of  Neptune,  which  were  set 
forth  to  them  by  the  law  and  by  the  jurisprudence  of 
their  forefathers,  written  down  on  a  column  of  ori- 
chalch  in  a  temple  of  Neptune  about  the  centre  of  the 
island.  They  therefore  assembled  alternately  every 
fifth  and  every  sixth  year,  allowing  to  all,  whether 
equals  or  superiors,  an  equal  share  in  the  deliberations  ; 
and  when  gathered  together  they  maturely  considered 
what  belonged  to  their  common  interests,  examined 
whether  any  one  had  become  guilty  of  trespass,  and 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA    IN   ANCIENT   GREECE. 


141 


rendered  justice.  When  on  the  point  of  sitting  in 
judgment  chey  first  gave  security  to  one  another  in  the 
following  manner  :  A  number  of  steers  having  been  let 
loose  in  the  temple  of  Neptune,  the  ten  of  them,  but 
each  one  by  himself  alone,  made  vow  to  the  god  to 
catch  for  him  an  acceptable  victim,  and  commenced  the 
chase  without  a  lance,  armed  only  with  sticks  and  las- 
Whichever  steer  they  laid  hold  on  they  brought 


soes. 


to  the  column  and  killed  it  on  the  column's  top,  accord- 
ing to  the  written  legislation. 

"  There  existed  many  other  laws  for  each  one  of  the 
kings  in  regard  to  things  sacred  ;  but  the  holiest  of  all 
was  never  to  carry  arms  against  one  another  ;  but  each 
was  obliged  to  assist  all  others  in  case  that  anybody 
should  undertake  to  destroy  their  kingly  race  in  any 
city  whatever.  Having,  as  their  predecessors,  delib- 
erated in  common  about  the  measures  relating  to  war 
and  all  other  public  affairs,  they  gave  the  leadership  to 
Atlas's  descendants." 

Before  proceeding  any  farther,  we  should  stop  a  mo- 
ment here  to  reflect  on  the  kind  of  sacrifice  offered  up 
to  Neptune  in  prehistoric  America.  It  consisted  of 
animals  slaughtered  in  honor  of  the  apparently  one 
God.  The  advanced  civilization  of  the  ancient  At- 
lantides  was  thus  free  from  the  degrading  human  sac- 
rifices which  afterwards  polluted  our  continent  during 
so  many  centuries.  Material  welfare,  arts,  and  sciences 
walked  hand  in  hand  with  philosophy  and  religion 
either  comparatively  or  absolutely  pure.  The  Greek 
philosopher  had  no  knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  records 
of  man's  creation  and  of  his  original  divine  worship ; 
but  we  cannot  fail  to  see  the  close  resemblance  of  his 
Neptune  with  the  Almighty  God,  of  his  mortal  woman 
with  our  first  mother,  of  his  Atlantidic  sacrifices  with 
those  of  Abel,  of  his  arts  and  general  welfare  in  the 


S; 


142       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

distant  West  with  those  of  Adam's  immediate  descend- 
ants. By  so  far  is  all  this  true  that  we  venture  to 
surmise  that  typical  Christianity  was  the  first  religion 
of  American  nations.  This  supposition  derives  no  in- 
considerable weight  from  the  following  further  state- 
ments, replete  with  matter  for  serious  reflection.  Critias 
continues :  ^ 

"  For  many  generations,  as  long  as  the  nature  of  the 
god  lasted  in  them,  they  were  obedient  to  the  laws,  and 
had  a  mind  well  disposed  towards  their  parent  deity, 
for  their  thoughts  were  true  and  grand  in  every  re- 
spect. Using  meekness  and  prudence  in  every-day 
occurrences  and  towards  one  another,  they  despised  all 
temporal  things  but  virtue,  and  they  considered  as 
rather  a  burden  the  plenty  of  gold  and  the  abundance 
of  other  possessions ;  neither  did  they,  satiated  with 
food,  fall  into  error  as  unable  to  govern  themselves  be- 
cause of  their  riches ;  but,  moderate  as  they  were,  they 
plainly  saw  that  all  those  goods  increase  through  mu- 
tual charity  and  virtue,  and,  on  the  contrary,  that 
through  the  desire  and  esteem  of  them  these  virtues 
are  destroyed.  Through  such  principles  and  the  divine 
nature  still  lasting,  all  things  improved  for  them,  as 
we  said  before.  But  after  the  divine  portion  had  been 
reduced  to  naught  in  them  by  the  admixture  of  much 
mortal,  and  human  customs  had  prevailed,  then  they 
first  became  disgraced,  being  unable  to  bear  transitory 
things,  and  appeared  despicable  to  one  who  could  ob- 
serve, having  lost  the  most  beautiful  part  of  what  is 
most  honorable." 

These  remarks  of  Plato  are  certainly  as  great 
thoughts  as  those  which  he  grants  to  the  ancient  At- 
lantides,  and,  had  he  written  the  second  half  of  his 

'  See  Document  Y.,  b. 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE.       143 


"  Critias,"  we  might  expect  to  find  in  it  that  the  shame- 
ful loss  of  primeval  righteousness  brought  them  down 
to  an  unjust  ambition  which  was  the  cause  of  their 
punishment  at  the  hands  of  the  Athenians  and  of  the 
gods,  as  it  is  related  by  the  priest  of  Sais  at  the  end  of 
the  philosQpher's  "  Timeeus,"  in  this  manner : 

"The  Atlantic  kings,^  having  combined  all  their 
strength,  undertook  one  day  to  enslave  at  one  swoop  all 
your  country  and  ours,  and  all  that  lies  on  this  side  of 
the  Strait.  Then,  O  Solon,  through  the  courage  and 
power  of  your  people,  became  evident  to  all  men  the 
importance  of  your  city.  For,  excelling  all  others  in 
audacity  and  in  the  arts  of  war,  either  at  the  head 
of  the  Greeks,  or  facing  alone  the  calamity  while  the 
others  fled  before  it,  she  underwent  the  most  extreme 
dangers ;  but,  having  conquered  at  last,  she  erected  a 
trophy  of  the  arms  of  her  assailants,  preserving  from 
slavery  those  who  were  not  enslaved  yet,  and  gener- 
ously liberating  all  others  who  were  living  on  this  side 
of  Hercules's  boundary. 

"Afterwards  extraordinary  earthquakes  and  floods 
took  place,  the  calamity  lasting  one  day  and  one  night, 
and  your  warlike  apparel  suddenly  sank  down  in  the 
earth,  and  the  island  Atlantis  likewise  disappeared, 
engulfed  by  the  ocean.  Hence  has  that  sea  become 
impervious  and  impassable  even  now,  sailing  being 
prevented  by  its  great  shallowness,  which  was  caused 
by  the  mud  left  behind  by  the  sunken  island." 

Although  upheavals  and  depressions  of  the  crust  of 
the  earth  are  well-known  facts,  yet  it  is  but  recently, 
says  Bancroft,^  that  any  important  signification  has  been 
attached  to  this  striking  statement  of  the  great  Athe- 
nian philosopher.     True,  it  had  been  frequently  quoted 


v 


*  See  Document  V.,  c. 


'  Vol.  V.  p.  124. 


r 


144       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

to  show  that  the  ancients  had  a  knowledge  more  or  J  9» 
vague  of  the  continent  of  America,  but  no  particular 
value  was  set  upon  the  assertion  that  the  mysterious 
land  w&s,  ages  ago,  submerged  and  lost  in  the  ocean. 
Of  late  years,  however,  it  has  been  discovered  that 
traditions  and  records  of  cataclysms  similar  to  that 
referred  to  by  the  Egyptian  priest  have  been  preserved 
among  the  American  nations,  and  this  discovery  has 
led  several  learned  and  diligent  students  of  New- World 
lore  to  believe  that,  after  all,  the  story  of  Atlantis,  as 
recorded  by  Plato,  may  be  founded  upon  fact,  and  that 
in  by-gone  times  there  did  actually  exist  in  the  At- 
lantic Ocean  a  great  tract  of  inhabited  country,  form- 
ing, perhaps,  part  of  the  American  continent.  This 
theory  is  to-day  sustained  by  many  scientists,  who 
conclude,  from  the  comparison  of  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  both  hemispheres,  that  America  and  Africa  must 
have  been  close  neighbors,  while  others,  after  study- 
ing deep-sea  soundings  as  carefully  as  sea-captains  do, 
arrive  at  the  same  conclusion,  from  the  fact  tliat  the 
whole  bed  of  the  Atlantic,  where  the  Atlantis  Island 
is  said  to  have  been  situated,  consists  of  extinct  vol- 
canoes, and  is,  by  the  side  of  the  Azores,  the  Madeiras, 
the  Canary,  and  the  Cape  Verd  Islands,  dotted  with 
reefs  so  numerous  that  it  has  all  the  appearance  of 
a  depressed  mountainous  country.^  The  existence  at 
some  former  period  of  such  an  island,  or  rather  con- 
tinent, seems  to  be  regarded  by  geologists  as  a  well- 
attested  fact.^ 

These  arguments  would  hardly  fail  to  bring  convic- 
tion, should  the  evidence  of  Plato  be  strengthened  by 
that  of  other  ancient  authors ;  but  the  testimonies  of 


»  Cf.  O'Donoghue,  p.  307  ;  Short, 
p.  476,  n.  2. 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  ill.  p.  356,  n.*;  Winchell,  p. 
891. 


'■r"'y3?,'-:-?"WP 


NOTIONS   OF   AMERICA    IN    ANCIENT   GREECE,       146 


these  only  go  to  confirm  his  general  statements  regard- 
ing the  western  world.' 

Aristoteles,  Plato^s-contemporary  and  his  equal  if  not 
his  superior  In  philosophy,  clearly  speaks  of  our  con- 
tinent, and  his  description  thereof  added  courage  to 
Christopher  Columbus  in  searching  the  old  route  to  it, 
as  is  admitted  by  ancient  and  modern  authors.*^  The 
possibility  of  meeting  land  by  sailing  westward  from 
the  western  coast  of  Africa  is  sufficiently  pointed  out 
in  the  hist  lines  of  the  second  book,  chapter  xiv.  of  his 
"  Treaty  on  Heaven ;"  he  is  of  the  opinion  that  the 
intervening  distance  is  not  extraordinarily  great,  and 
speaks  of  the  .ephants  that  were  common  to  the  oppo- 
site coasts  of  both  continents.^  "  It  is  said,"  he  further 
writes,  "  that  the  Carthaginians  have  discovered  beyond 
the  Pillars  of  Hercules  a  very  fertile  island,  which, 
however,  is  devoid  of  inhabitants,  but  full  of  forests  and 
navigable  rivers,  and  abounds  in  fruit.  It  is  situated 
many  days'  voyage  from  the  main-land.  Some  of  the 
Carthaginians,  charmed  with  the  fertility  of  that  coun- 
try, conceived  the  idea  of  getting  married  and  of  going 
to   establish  themselves  there,  but  it  is  said  that  the 


^ 


»H.   ^ 

127)  s. 


Bancroft    (vol.    v.    p. 

K  b. .-  «''■'■'  de  Bourbourg's 


theory     ■pjK  • 
of  Ar  eric;', « 
Gulfo.     r  :t 
Sea,  ai 
a  penini 


at  the  continent 

i  originally  the 

•  .  i   I  the  Caribbean 

I  J  in  the  form  of 

..tr  across  the  Atlan- 


tic that  the  Canary  Islands  may 
have  formed  part  of  it.  All  this 
extended  portion  of  the  continent 
was  engulfed  by  a  tremendous  con- 
vulsion of  nature,  of  which  tra- 
ditions and  written  records  have 
been  preserved  by  many  American 
peoples;  and  he  adds  (Ibid.,  n. 
268) :  In  the  Chimalpopoca,  Bras- 
seur  reads  that  "ii.  la  suite  de 
I.— 10 


r^niption  des  volcans,  ouverts  sur 
toute  r^tendue  du  Continent  Am4- 
ricain,  double  alors  de  ce  qu'il  est 
aujourd'nui,  I'^ruption  soudaine 
d'un  immei:?e  foyer  sous-marin  fit 
^clater  le  monde,  ev  abtma,  entre 
un  lever  et  un  autre  de  I'^toile  du 
matin,  les  regions  le^^  plus  riches  du 
globe."     (Qnatre  Lettres,  p.  45. ) 

*  Geo.  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  x.  p. 
66  ;  B.  F.  De  Costa,  Pre-columbian 
Discovery,  p.  11  ;  Ed.  J.  Payne,  p. 
60 ;  R.  H.  Clarke  in  Amer.  Cath. 
Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xvii.  p.  307;  Aa. 
passim. 

'  Alex,  von  Humboldt,  Examen, 
t.  i.  p.  38. 


146       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


ur 


government  of  Carthage  forbade  any  one  to  attempt  to 
colonize  the  island,  under  penalty  of  death  ;  for,  in  case 
it  were  to  become  powerful,  it  might  deprive  the  mother 
country  of  her  possessions  there."  * 

Theophrastus,  the  former  philosopher's  disciple,  no- 
tices the  same  western  lands.^ 

Theopompus  not  only  mentions  the  ^leycO^Yi  "HTteipog 
that  lies  beyond  the  ocean  which  encircles  the  Old 
World, ^  but  liis  Silenus  tells  Midas,  king  of  Phrygia,  of 
the  populous  cities  to  be  found  in  it,*  one  of  them 
having  more  than  a  million  inhabitants  ;  he  tells  of  its 
large  animals  and  of  its  people,  who  are  twice  as  tall 
and  live  twice  as  long  as  we ;  who  have  peculiar  cus- 
toms and  laws  quite  different  from  ours,  ajid  possess 
great  quanties  of  gold  and  silver,  which  they  value 
less  than  we  do  iron.  He  also  tells  of  their  European 
exploration,  as  we  shall  observe  hereafter.^ 

An  illustrious  navigator  of  the  fourth  century  B.C.,  a 
contemporary  of  Theopompus,  gives  us  evident  proof 
that  the  farther  we  recede,  either  in  time  or  space,  from 
ancient  Oriental  literature,  the  less  information  we  can 
expect  from  European  authors  in  regard  to  our  western 
hemisphere  ;  we  descend  a  river  whose  waters  grow  less 
and  finally  get  lost  in  its  sandy  bed. 


-i 


1  W.  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  liXi ;  D. 
O'Donoghue,  p.  306. 

^  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  x.  p.  56. 

8  Supm,  p.  122. 

♦  Ap.  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  440. 

'  ©ou»ia<rio,  referred  to  by  von 
Humboldt,  Exanien,  t.  i.  p.  20<> ; 
d'Arbois  de  Joubainville,  ch.  ii.  p. 
17  ;  W.  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  196.  A 
translation  of  the  year  1576,  ap. 
Winsor,  vol.  ?  p.  21:  "Silenus 
tolde  Midas  of  certaine  Islands, 
named  Europa,  Asia,  and  Libia, 
which  the  ocean  sea  circumscribeth 


and  compaaseth  round  about.  And 
that  without  this  worlde  there  is  a 
continent  or  percell  of  dry  lande, 
which  in  greatnesse,  as  hee  re- 
ported, was  infinite  and  unnieas- 
urable,  that  it  nourished  and  main- 
tained by  the  benefite  of  the  greene 
medowes  and  pasture  plots,  sun- 
drye  bigge  and  mighty  beastes ; 
that  the  men  which  inhabit*  the 
same  climats,  exceede  the  stature 
of  UB  twise,  and  yet  the  length  of 
there  life  is  not  equale  to  ours." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ANCIENT    EUROPEAN   GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA. 

Pythias  of  Marseilles  had  been  raised  on  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  and  knew  the  greater  part  of  the  Eastern 
Continent.  After  having  sailed  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
and  the  North  Sea,  probably  as  far  as  Iceland,  he  wrote 
a  book  with  the  significant  title  "  n^g  HepioSog,"  Around 
the  World.  The  Western  Continent  was  lost  for  him, 
as  it  seems  to  have  been  already  for  Aristoteles,  who 
thought  that  the  Carthaginian  distant  possessions  lay 
on  the  eastern  coasts  of  Asia.^ 

The  Arabian  geographer  Edrisi  asserted,  also,  that 
the  sea  of  China,  which  washed  the  lands  of  Gog  and 
Magog,  was  one  with  the  Dark  Sea  or  Atlantic  Ocean. '^ 
Pope  Alexander  VI.,  speaking  of  Gardar  in  Greenland, 
could  not  describe  any  better  its  location  on  the  Ameri- 
can hemisphere  than  by  stating  that  it  was  situated 
"  in  fine  mundi,"  on  the  border  of  the  globe  !^  It  was, 
in  fact,  as  late  as  a.d.  1524,  that,  through  a  letter  of 
Giovanni  Verrazzano,  it  became  known  in  Europe 
again  that  the  West  Indies  was  no  part  of  Asia,  but  a 
continent  by  itself.* 

Eratosthenes,®  following  in  the  path  of  Aristoteles, 


*  Gravier,  i).  xv  ;  von  Humboldt, 
Exainen,  t.  i.  p.  38  ;  W.  D.  Cooley, 
Maritime  and  Inland  Discovery, 
vol.  i.  p.  55. 

'  Cf.  von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t. 
i.  p.  52. 

'  Arcliiv.  Secret.  Apostol.  Vatic, 


Dive.  ,  Alex.  VI.,  Amiar.  29,  t.  50, 
fo.  23. 

*  "  Un  altro  mondo  uiaggiore  dell' 
Europa,  dell'  Africa  e  quasi  dell' 
Asia."     (P.  Amat,  p.  185.) 

0  27()-194  B.C. 

147 


? 


My 


I       I 


148       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

i  believed  in  the  absolute  possibility  of  finding  land  on  a 
'  westward  course,  but  thought  the  distance  too  great  for 
the  voyagers  of  his  time, — namely,  the  two-thirds  of 
the  world's  circumference.  In  this  opinion  he  found 
but  little  acceptance  by  his  contemporaries,  and  Posei- 
donius^  reckoned  that  the  width  of  the  ocean  inter- 
vening between  the  west  coast  of  Spain  and  the  east 
coast  of  China  was  nearly  equal  to  that  of  the  known 
world.^  Marinus  Tyrius  fell  into  the  opposite  excess 
again,  extending  the  breadth  of  the  oixov^ievYi  or  in- 
habited earth  to  fifteen  hours,  and  leaving  only  nine 
hours  of  the  sun's  course  to  be  traversed  by  the  west- 
ward voyager.  He  had  wiped  away  the  space  occupied 
by  our  contment,  as  also  did  Lucius  A.  Seneca,  who 
made  light  of  the  distance  between  the  western  coast 
of  Europe  and  the  eastern  coast  of  Asia.  '*  Pray,"  he 
asks,  "  how  far  is  it  from  the  farthest  shores  of  Spain 
westward  to  those  of  India?  A  very  few  days'  sail, 
with  a  fair  wind."^  Ptolemy*  reduced  the  extravagant 
area  of  the  known  world  to  the  statement  of  Posei- 
donius,  and  his  theory  was  accepted  all  through  the 
middle  ages.^ 

All  these  statements  and  references  abundantly  prove 
that  for  many  centuries  the  learned  men  of  Europe 
had  hardly  any  idea  of  their  antipodes  or  of  the  antip- 
odal continent,  which  they  had  mercilessly  drowned  in 
the  billows  whose  extent  they  were  discussing.  This 
should  not,  however,  lead  to  the  belief  that  all  appre- 
hension of  our  landed  hemisphere  and  all  former  infor- 
mation relating  to  it  had  irreparably  been  lost.     Some 


>  165-130  B.C. 

»  Edw.  J.  Payne,  pp.  37,  41. 

'  "Quantum  enini  est,  quod  ab 
ultimis  littoribuH  Hiepaniee  usque 
ad  Indos  jacet?  Pauciesimorum 
dierum   spatium,    si    navem   suus 


ventus  iniplevit."  (Qusestionum 
Naturalium  Libri  vii.,  prsef.  If  11 ; 
Payne,  pp.  41,  42. )  Cf.  von  Hum- 
boldt, Examen,  t.  i.  pp.  99,  162. 

*  Born  circa  a.d.  70. 

*  Edw.  J.  Payne,  p.  44. 


ANCIENT    EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OP    AMERK;A.      149 


vague  idea  and  positive  doubt  of  it  continued  among 
the  learned  of  Europe,  even  down  to  Columbus. 

Diodorus  of  Sicily  still  writes,  probably  copying  an 
older  author,  that  the  Phoenicians  had  discovered  a 
large  island  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  beyond  the  Pillars 
of  Hercules,  several  days'  journey  from  the  coast  of 
Africa.  This  island  abounded  in  all  manner  of  riches. 
The  soil  wfis  exceedingly  fertile,  the  scenery  diversified 
by  rivers,  mountains,  and  forests.  It  was  the  custom 
of  the  inhabitants  to  retire  during  the  summer  to  mag- 
nificent country-houses  which  stood  in  tiie  midst  of 
beautiful  gardens.  Fish  and  game  were  found  in  great 
abundance.  The  climate  was  delightful,  and  the  trees 
bore  fruit  in  all  seasons  of  the  year.  The  Phoenicians 
discovered  this  fortunate  island  by  accident,  being  driven 
on  its  cojist  by  contrary  winds.  On  their  return  they 
gave  glowing  accounts  of  its  beauty  and  fertility.  The 
Tyrians,  who  were  noted  sailors,  desired  to  colonize  it, 
but  the  senate  of  Carthage  opposed  their  plans,  either 
through  jealousy  and  a  wish  to  keep  for  themselves  any 
commercial  benefit  that  might  be  derived  from  it ;  or, 
as  Diodorus  relates,  because  they  wished  to  use  it  as  a 
place  of  refuge  in  case  of  need.^ 

About  the  year  80  b.c.  Sertorius,  being  for  a  time 
driven  from  Spain  by  the  forces  of  Sulla,  fell  in,  when 
on  an  expedition  to  Bsetica,  with  certain  sailors  who 
had  just  returned  from  the  "  Atlantic  islands,"  which 
they  described  as  two  in  number,  distant  ten  thousand 
stadia  from  Africa  and  enjoying  a  won3irftiT~climate. 
The  account  in  Plutarch  is  quite  consistent  with  a  pre- 
vious knowledge  of  the  islands,  even  on  the  part  of 
Sertorius.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  glowing  praises  of 
the  eye-witnesses  so  impressed  him  that  only  the  un- 


'I 


^ 


*  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  67  ;     The  Recent  Origin  of  Man,  pp.  21, 
W.  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  197  ;  Southall,     574  ;  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  24. 


160       HI8TOKY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


willingness  of  his  followers  prevented  his  taking  refuge 
there.  We  may  notice  that  the  great  distance  from 
Africa  points  to  American  territory.^ 

Strabo ''  is  the  next  writer  who  alludes  to  our  western 
hemisphere,  saying,  "  Eratosthenes  sets  forth  lengthy 
arguments  to  persuade  his  readers  that,  were  it  not  for 
the  width  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  we  might  sail,  along 
the  same  parallel,  from  Spain  to  India,  across  what  is 
left  of  the  world  when  we  take  Europe  and  Asia  from 
it.  .  .  .  Moreover,  we  might  find  two  and  even  more 
inhabited  countries,  particularly  close  to  the  circle  that 
passes  by  China,  or  Nankin  in  China."  In  another 
place  he  again  intimates  the  existence  of  unknown 
lands  between  western  Europe  and  eastern  Asia.^ 

The  Latin  poet  Horace*  evidently  meant  the  western 
hemisphere  by  the  unknown  islands  far  away  in  the 
encircling  ocean,  on  which,  he  told  his  countrymen, 
they  might  take  refuge  in  the  iron  age  of  the  Roman 
empire.  He  describes  them  as  full  of  riches,  yielding 
spontaneous  crops  of  cereals  and  wine,  and  made  safe 
and  secure  by  being  almost  unknown  to  the  sailors  of 
the  time.  Virgil,  his  contemporary,  plainly  intimates 
his  vague  knowledge  of  our  distant  shores  when  he 
expresses  the  Romans'  proud  ambition  of  extending 
their  dominion  beyond  the  limits  of  India  and  Africa,  to 
the  very  spot  where  Atlas,  away  in  the  western  ocean, 
sustains  the  columns  of  the  heavens.^ 

Everybody  knows  the  prophecy  of  Seneca  in  his 
"  Medea :"  ^  "  Nothing  has  remained  in  its  old  place  in 
this  pervious  world.     The  Indian  quaffs  the  Jaxartes's 


'  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  26. 

«  Born  66  b.c. 

'  Geographica,  lib.  i.  pp.  113,  114 
Aim.,  or  pp.  64,  65  Caa.  ;  lib.  ii.  p. 
179  Aim.,  or  118  Caa.,  quoted  by 
von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  pp. 


147,     152 ;     A.    van    Speybrouck, 
Chiistoffei  Colomb,  p.  43. 

*  66-9  B.C. 

'  See  Document  VI.,  o. 

•  Ibid.,  b. 


ANCIENT   EUROPEAN   GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.       161 


waters  and  the  Persian  those  of  the  Elbe  and  of  the 
Rhine.  After  many  years  the  time  shall  come  that  the 
ocean  will  loosen  the  bonds  with  which  it  confines  the 
earth,  and  that  the  great  continent  will  be  thrown  open. 
Thetis  will  uncover  new  worlds,  and  Thule  shall  no 
longer  be  the  farthest  land." 

Acosta  and  others  considered  the  chorus  of  Seneca's 
"Medea"  as  a  mere  poetical  fancy,  but  Payne ^  thinks 
that  it  may  be  derived  from  the  statements  of  Aristoteles 
and  Strabo.  R.  H.  Clarke '•'  supposes  it  to  have  been 
a  divine  inspiration,  and  we  are  of  the  opinion  tlit 
the  poet's  prophecy  likely  rests  on  strictly  historical  in- 
formation. The  Romans  were  at  his  time  the  masters 
of  a  large  portion  of  Albion,  whose  natives,  especially 
those  of  modern  Scotland,  were  undoubtedly  acquainted 
with  the  Tartars  of  the  northern  islands,  Iceland  and 
Greenland,  and  of  the  northeastern  coast  of  America. 
No  w  vender,  therefore,  if  it  had  come  to  Seneca's  ears 
that  such  mysterious  lands  existed  as  those  which  he 
hoped  his  country  would  subjugate  one  day,  as  it  had 
subjugated  Persia  and  Germany. 

A  few  years  later  the  elder  Pliny  ^  stated  again  the 
sphericity  of  the  earth  and  the  relatively  small  extent 
of  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  he  knew  the  Fortunate  or 
Madeira  Islands,  and  repoi'ted  the  belief  of  many  of 
his  contemporaries, — namely,  that  beyond  these  islands 
there  were  yet  to  be  found  a  number  of  others.* 

Pomponius  Mela  *  had  perhaps  these  latter  in  view 
when  he  spoke  of  his  "  Alter  Orbis"  or  Other  World.® 


'  p.  41. 

'  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
xvii.  p.  305. 

»  23-79  A.D. 

*  Historia  Naturalis,  lib.  vi.  cap. 
xxxvii.  :  "  Sunt  qui  ultra  eae  For- 
tunatas  putant  esse  quasdamque 
alias."     Cf.  O.  Peschel,  Geschichte 


des  Zeitalters  der  Entd.,  S.  29,  n. 
2;  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
xvii.  p.  307. 

» 41  A.D. 

«  De  Situ  Orbis,  i.  9,  4  ;  ii.  7,  7  ; 
cf.  von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i. 
p.  153. 


152       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Hoinius^  thinks  that  they  are  the  same  distant  islands 
mentioned  by  Appuleius  ^  in  his  book  "  De  Mundo," 
About  the  World.  The  Dutch  antiquarian  ^  calls  our 
attention  to  a  passage  of  an  erudite  rhapsodist  of  the 
same  epoch,  ^lianus  Claudius,  who  rehearses  Theo- 
pompus's  exciting  description  of  the  great  continent, 
larger  than  Asia,  Europe,  and  Lybia  together,*  and  the 
words  of  Marcellinus  asserting  that  in  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  there  is  an  island  of  greater  importance  than 
Europe,*^  and  to  which  the  Canaries  were  subject." 

We  should  have  stopped,  before  this,  our  inquiry 
into  the  European  ancient  knowledge  of  the  American 
continent,  were  we  to  strictly  follow  the  order  of  chro- 
nology ;  but  we  trust  it  may  please  our  readers  if, 
guided  by  laws  of  logical  thought,  we  still  further  con- 
tinue to  examine  how  much  there  was  known  in  the 
Old  World  of  our  western  hemisphere,  even  down  to 
Columbus's  disco  v^ery. 

Christianity  has  always  been  not  only  the  jealous 
g  ^rdian  of  divinely  revealed  truth,  but  also  the  pre- 
sei  3r  and  promoter  of  all  human  science ;  she  has 
carefully  saved  what  few  faint  notions  she  has  inherited 
from  paganism  regarding  our  western  world,  and,  in 
God's  own  good  time,  she  has  developed  them  into  full 
and  complete  knowledge. 

St.  Clement  of  Alexandria,  at  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  and  St.  Jerome,  during  the  fourth,  wrote  of 
the  worlds  that  lay  beyond  the  ocean.  St.  Jerome 
says,^  "  We  seek  with  reason  what  the  Apostle  means 
in  these  words  when  he  says,  *  You  have  walked  for  a 
while  according  to  the  course  of  this  world,' "  whether  he 


1  Lib.  i.  cap.  x,  p.  56. 
'  Second  century  after  Christ. 
'  Lib.  i.  cap.  x.  p.  56. 
*  Southall,  p.  21 ;  supra,  p.  146, 
n.  5. 


""In  Atlantico   mari    Europeeo 
orbe  potior  insula." 
«  Winchell,  p.  381. 
'  Super  cap.  ii.  ad  Ephesios. 
» Eph.  ii.  2. 


ANCIENT   EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.      153 

would  have  us  to  understand  that  there  is  another  world 
which  neither  is,  nor  depends  on,  this  world ;  or  other 
worlds  whereof  Clement  writes  in  his  epistle,  *  The  ocean 
and  the  worlds  which  are  beyond  the  ocean.'  "  ^ 

St.  Gregory,^  commenting  upon  a  letter  of  St.  Clement, 
likewise  assures  us  that,  in  crossing  the  ocean,  we  would 
meet  another  world,  nay,  other  worlds.^ 

Nor  is  it  true  that  the  other  Fathers  of  the  Church 
opposed  and  condemned  the  theory  of  the  earth's 
sphericity  and  of  antipodal  countries.  Edw.  J.  Payne 
answers  well :  *  "  Lactantius  does  not  deny  the  sphericity 
of  the  earth ;  St.  Augustine  admits  it  as  not  improb- 
able.^ What  the  Fathers  deny  is  the  existence  of  human 
beings  under  another  divine  dispensation.  Men  of 
learning,  whether  ecclesiastics  or  not,  believed  in  the 
spherical  earth  with  its  Terra  Australis  or  'AvrixBoiv 
in  the  southern  hemisphere.  The  sole  dispute  was 
whether  it  had  any  inhabitants.  Isidore  of  Seville,  in 
the  seventh  century,  held  that  it  had  not ;  Venerable 
Bede,  in  the  eighth  century,  that  it  had." " 

In  addition  to  these  writers,  we  might  mention  Jor- 
danes,  Orosius,  Dicuil,  and  Moses  of  Chorene. 

Not  many  to-day  can  illustrate  the  truth  of  the 
earth's   sphericity   more   clearly   than    the   author   of 


»  Cf.  Acosta,  bk.  i.  ch.  xi.  p.  32  ; 
H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  68  ;  Hor- 
niuH,  lib.  i.  cap.  x.  p.  56. 

'  End  of  the  fourth  century. 

'  Ant.  de  Herreni,  dec.  i.  lib.  i. 
ca,p.  i.  p.  1. 

*  P.  46,  seq. 

»  Cf.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  31.  It  is 
sad  to  see  an  author  of  Mr.  Winsor' s 
erudition  humor  his  public  with 
such  unwarranted  assertions  as, 
"That  knowledge  dwindled  after 
the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire,  that 
the    early    church    included    the 


learning  as  well  as  the  religion  of 
the  piigans  in  its  ban,  is  unde- 
niable ;"  even  though  he  refutes 
the  general  imputation  by  the  par- 
ticulars of  the  next  following  sen- 
tence. He  correctly  states,  indeed, 
that  "Gerbert,  Albert  the  Great, 
Rc/ger  Bacon,  Dante  were  as  famil- 
iar with  the  idea  of  the  earth-globe 
as  were  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy  ; 
that  it  was  assumed  by  Isidore  of 
Seville  and  taught  by  Bede." 

'His    "De    Elementis    Philoso- 
phise," lib.  iv. 


L"^,.' 


i?TF- 


154       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


"  L'Image  du  Monde,"  an  anonymous  poem  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  "  If  two  men,"  he  says,  "  were  to 
start  at  the  same  time  from  a  given  point,  and  to  go, 
the  one  east,  the  other  west,  they  would  needs  meet  at 
the  place  whence  they  set  out,"  ^ — if  not  on  the  opposite 
hemisphere. 

For  later  times  the  treatise  of  John  of  Halifax,  "  De 
Sacro  Bosco,"  is  enough  to  refute  the  singular  error 
that  the  doctrine  of  the  earth's  sphericity  was  discred- 
ited during  the  middle  ages  and  only  revived  after  the 
exploit  of  Columbus. 

Macrobius,  an  author  of  St.  Augustine's  time,  sup- 
posed a  second  Northern  and  a  second  Southern  oixov- 
[levyj  or  inhabited  earth,  on  the  other  side  of  the  globe, 
roughly  corresponding  to  North  and  South  America,^ 
which  may  readily  be  considered  as  the  fourth  part  of 
the  world  of  Isidore  of  Seville,^  who  also  speaks  of 
islands  lying  beyond  the  Atlantic  shores  about  the 
centre  of  the  waters.* 

One  century  later,  Alcuin  ^  and  his  disciple  Rhaban 
Maurus  ^  taught  that  there  was  a  fourth  quarter  of  the 
earth  yet  unseen  by  mortal  eyes.' 

This  last  remark  would  seem  to  prove  that  but  little 
attention  had  been  paid  in  Continental  Europe  to  the 
highly  probable  exploration  and  evangelization  of 
America  by  the  Irish  monk  St.  Brendan  and  his  com- 
panions in  the  sixth  century  ;  but  the  sixth  century  had 
not  its  newspapers  to  divulge  important  events  all  over 
the  world,  nor  were  the  religious  of  that  epoch  of  saints 

'  "Si  que  andui  egaumont  alas-  '  Origines,  lib.  xiv.  cap.  v.  ;   cf. 

sent,  von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  pp. 

II  convendroit  qu'il  s'encon-  111,  153. 

trassent  *  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  439. 

Dessus  le  leu  dont  il  se  mu-  *  732-804  a.d. 

rent."  •  774-856  a.d. 

(Ap.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  37. )  '  Edw.  J.  Payne,  p.  47. 
»  Edw.  J.  Payne,  p.  37. 


ANCIENT    EUROPEAN   GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.      165 


of 


anxious  to  have  their  deeds  known  beyond  the  walls  of 
their  archival  vaults,  and  it  was  only  about  the  eleventh 
century  that  the  records  of  St.  Brendan  excited  the 
pious  mind  of  holy  souls  and  of  a  few  savants  beyond 
the  shores  of  the  Island  of  Saints.  Nor  should  we 
wonder  if  St.  Brendan's  exploits  remained  unnoticed  so 
long,  when  we  consider  that  those  of  the  Northmen 
were  ignored  by  their  literary  southern  neiglibors  until, 
we  might  say,  this  very  century  of  ours.  But,  whether 
the  learned  men  of  Europe  paid  attention  to  it  or  not, 
it  is  a  well-settled  and  historical  fact  to-day,  that  our 
continent  was  visited,  settled,  and  evan"-elized  at  the 
close  of  the  tenth  century  by  the  neM  converted  in- 
habitants of  Iceland  and  Norway.  While  the  North- 
men themselves  did  probably  not  know  that  they  had 
discovered  the  American  continent,  the  scholars  of 
central  and  southern  Europe  continued  their  learned 
speculations  and  faded  lore  about  lands  and  islands  of 
the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

Of  these  were  Honorius  of  Autun  ^  and  Gervasius  of 
Tilbury.^ 

The  German  Dominican  friar,  Albert  of  Bollstadt  or 
Albertus  Magnus,  Vincent  of  Beauvais,  in  his  "  Specu- 
lum Majus,"  John  of  Salisbury,  the  English  Francis- 
can friar  Roger  Bacon,  all  authors  of  the  same  epoch, 
admitted  not  only  another  continent,  but,  also,  that  it  was 
inhabited,  and,  furthermore,  that  it  was  possible  to  estab- 
lish communication  with  it.  Their  statements  greatly 
encouraged  Christopher  Columbus  in  his  glorious  under- 
taking. George  Reisch  has,  in  his  "  Margarita  Philo- 
sophica,"  preserved  the  same  ancient  traditions.^ 


^  Twelfth  century.  De  Imagine 
Mundi,  lib.  i.  cap.  xxxvi.  ;  Migne, 
t.  clxxii.  col.  162;  Congrfis  Scient., 
V.  sec.  p.  170. 

'  Thirteenth  century.     Otia  Im- 


perialia ;  Leibnitz,  Scriptores  Re- 
rum  Bninsvicarum,  t.  i.  p.  919 ; 
Congr^s  Scient.,  v.  sec.  p.  170. 

'  Edw.  J.  Payne,  p.  48  or  49  ;  von 
Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  p.  HI. 


■""i;> 


■7" 

ill 


')  1^ 


156       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

A  great  Christian  and  great  poet  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  to  whom  Americanists  have  not  paid  suflficient 
respect,  Dante/  has  actually,  in  his  "  Divina  Com- 
media,"  discovered  the  American  continent  two  cen- 
turies before  Columbus.  Suffice  it  to  translate  a  few  of 
his  lines,^  where  he  intimates  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  is 
more  difficult  to  sail  all  along  the  Mediterranean  sea  than 
to  reach  the  New  World  across  the  western  ocean :  "  I 
and  my  companions  were  old  and  stiff  when  we  arrived 
at  these  narrow  straits,  where  Hercules  marked  down 
the  limits  of  his  journeys  to  warn  man  against  going 
any  farther,  leaving  me  Seville  at  my  right  and  Septa 
at  my  left.  Brothers,  said  I,  who  through  a  hundred 
thousand  perils  have  finally  reached  the  West,  do  not 
refuse  to  find  out,  during  the  short  space  which  is  left 
us  yet  of  our  bodily  existence,  the  realities  of  the 
world  devoid  of  people  that  lies  beyond  the  setting  sun. 
Consider  your  noble  extraction  ;  you  were  not  made  to 
live  like  brutes,  but  to  jiursue  virtue  and  knowledge." 
We  shall  simply  add  that  these  words  are  too  clear  to 
be  a  poet's  prophetic  dream,  and  must  have  their  foun- 
dation in  preserved  knowledge  of  our  western  world. 

A  learned  English  traveller  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, John  Mandeville,^  relates  a  quaint  legend  which 
he  heard  in  his  youth  and  should  not  be  altogether 
overlooked  here.  "A  man,"  he  says,  "had  started 
from  England  to  go  and  discover  the  world.  He 
had  gone  so  long  by  land  and  by  sea  that  he  had 
gone  all  around  the  earth ;  and  it  happened  that  after 
he  went  to  Norway  a  tempest  carried  him  to  an  island, 
and  when  he  was  in  that  island  he  well  knew  that  it 
was  the  island  where  he  had  heard  his  own  language 
spoken  before."     Edw.  J.  Payne*  remarks  here  that 


1  1266-1321. 

*  See  Documeat  VII. 


«  1327-1372. 
♦  P.  70. 


ANCIENT    EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.      157 


the  full  circumstances  of  the  discoveries  of  the  North- 
men were  only  to  be  heard  of  in  the  sagas  of  Iceland, 
but  that  the  description  of  one  fertile  island  which  they 
had  found  had  penetrated  into  the  literary  world  of 
southern  Europe.  It  was  this  island,  he  says,  known 
by  the  name  of  Wineland,  which  the  Englishman  of 
Mandeville's  legend  was  supposed  to  have  reached,  and 
which  afterwards,  yet  already  before  Columbus's  discov- 
eries, was  the  object  of  the  yearly  researches  of  Bristol's 
and  Lisbon's  mariners  in  western  waters.     """""' — "- 


We  might  doubt,  however,  whether  John  Mandeville 
had  not  rather  taken  his  curious  story  from  the  ideas 
set  forth  by  his  learned  countryman,  the  Franciscan 
friar  Roger  Bacon. ^ 

A  contemporary  of  Mandeville  was  the  great  Cardi- 
nal d'Ailly  or  Petrus  Alliacus.'^  He  had  no  idea  that 
America  was  a  special  continent,  but  he  seems  to  have 
been  of  the  opinion  which  prevailed  for  years  after 
Columbus's  discovery, — namely,  that  the  Western  Con- 
tinent, situated  where  it  is,  was  a  northeastern  exten- 
sion of  Asia.  This  we  are  entitled  to  conclude  from 
his  asserting  that  the  earth  stretches  forth  much  farther 
to  the  East  than  is  taught  by  Ptolemy,  and  that,  ac- 
cording to  physicists,  the  ocean  which  extends  between 
the  eastern  coasts  of  India  and  the  western  cliffs  of 
Africa  is  not  very  wide ;  for  it  is  well  known,  he  adds, 
that  it  can  be  crossed  in  a  few  days  with  favorable 
winds ;  and  hence  it  is  evident  that  the  uttermost  parts 
of  India  cannot  be  very  distant  from  those  of  Africa. 
The  water  flows  from  pole  to  pole  between  the  coasts 
of  both.''  • 

What  some  of  the  European  savants  of  the  middle 


'  1214-1294.  —  Von    Humboldt, 
Examen,  t.  i.  p.  58  ;  Payne,  p.  50. 
» 1360-1426. 


'  Cosmographise,    cap.     19 ;     cf. 
von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  p. 

77. 


158       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


II 


ages  had  described  in  their  scholastic  prose,  others  had 
represented  on  inaccurate  maps.  Yet  from  both  it  is 
evident  that  Europe  at  the  time  was  aware  of  the  ex- 
istence of  certain  lands  situated  far  away  in  the  At- 
lantic Ocean.  Not  to  speak  of  many  other  instances 
recorded  by  Jomard/  suffice  it  to  notice  the  map  of 
Picigano  of  the  year  1367,  where  we  find  the  dubious 
.^jitilia  located  about  the  centre  of  the  Atlantic  waves.'^ 
Another  map  of  1384  places  the  Madeiras  in  their 
rightful  location,  in  spite  of  such  as  pretend  that  they 
were  not  discovered  before  1419,  although  they  had 
most  probably  been  visited  by  many  earlier  mariners.^ 
In  the  library  of  St.  Mark  in  Venice  are  two  pen- 
drawn  maps,  one  of  Vincenzo  Formaleoni  and  another 
dated  1455  (?),  which  record  the  imaginary  island 
Antilia  about  the  central  meridian  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean.*  Andrea  Bianco,  a  geographer  of  the  same 
epoch,  and  Martin  Behaim  drew,  within  the  outlines 
of  the  same  supposititious  island,  all  that  was  left  of 
Plato's  ancient  tradition  and  all  that  had  penetrated 
into  literary  Europe  from  the  Northmen's  discoveries. 
The  fictitious  islands,  such  as  Man  Satanaxio,  with 
which  the  expanse  of  the  Atlantic  had  been  studded 
during  the  middle  ages,  are  witnesses  to  the  same  or 
to  still  more  progressive  opinions. 

It  seems,  indeed,  that,  as  the  epoch  of  Columbus's 
discovery  drew  nearer,  the  conceptions  regarding  th6 
western  hemisphere  became  bolder  and  more  accurate ; 
but  it  remains  doubtful  whether  this  development  of 
scientific  conjectures  was  caused  by  the  adventurous 
voyages  of   Portuguese  seamen   or   derived   from  the 


'  Les  Monuments  de  la  G^ogra-  '  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  234. 

phie.  *  M.  A.  M.  Mizzi,  Cristoforo  Co- 

'  Cf.  W.  D.  Cooley,  The  History,  lonibo,  p.  14  and  n.  3. 
p.  236. 


ANCIENT    EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.      159 

scanty  intercourse  of  southern  Europe  with  the  Ice- 
landic owners  of  historical  manuscripts  relating  the 
deeds  of  their  ancestors  on  American  soil.  The  fact 
is,  that  the  following  lines  of  a  Florentine  poet  of  the 
fifteenth  century  hardly  fall  short  of  the  learned  plead- 
ings of  Columbus  himself  before  the  Commission  of 
Salamanca.  Pulci/  says  R.  H.  Clarke,*  has,  in  poetic 
form  given  the  world  of  that  century  an  insight  into 
the  coming  discovery,  a  prophecy  which,  no  doubt,  fell 
under  the  vigilant  eye  of  the  man  that  fulfilled  it. 
The  poet  puts  the  words  in  the  mouth  of  the  devil,  to 
refute  the  general  belief  that  the  world  ended  at  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules : 

"  Know  that  this  theory  is  false  ;  his  bark 
The  daring  mariner  shall  urge  far  o'er 
The  western  wave,  a  smooth  and  level  plain, 
Albeit  the  earth  is  fashioned  like  a  wheel. 
Man  was  in  ancient  days  of  grosser  mould, 
And  Hercules  might  blush  to  know  how  far 
Beyond  the  limits  he  had  vainly  set 
The  dullest  sea-boat  soon  shall  wing  her  way. 
Men  shall  descry  another  hemisphere, 
Since  to  one  common  centre  all  things  tend. 
So  earth,  by  curious  mystery  divine 
Well  balanced,  hangs  amid  the  stariy  spheres. 
At  our  antipodes  are  cities,  states, 
And  thronged  empires,  ne'er  divined  of  yore. 
But  see,  the  sun  speeds  on  his  western  path, 
To  glad  the  nations  with  expected  light."'  , 

Here  in  these  remarkable  and  spirited  words  of  the 
poet-prophet  we  find  settled  and  elucidated,  with  ease 
and  grandeur  of  conception,  the  important  questions 
which  afterwards  perplexed  and  disconcerted  the  grave 


»  1431-1487. 

'  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev. ,  vol. 
xvii.  p.  306. 


'  II  Morgante  Maggiore,  Pres- 
cott's  translation.  See  Document 
VII.,  h. 


160       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'  I 


h 


judges  of  Salamanca.  The  sphericity  of  the  earth,  the 
centre  of  gravity,  the  antipodes,  the  hemispheres,  con- 
tinents studded  with  cities,  states,  and  empires  are  all 
described,  and  the  little  caravel,  on  board  which  Co- 
lumbus sailed  and  saw  or  explored  them  all,  was  "  the 
dullest  sea-boat"  which  made  the  prophesied  voyage. 

It  is  probable  that  these  lines  did  not  escape  the 
searching  eye  of  Christopher  Columbus.  We  know 
that  the  great  discoverer  was  encouraged  in  his  daring 
enterprise  by  the  letters  of  another  Florentine, — 
namely,  of  the  learned  cosmographer  Paolo  Toscanelli, 
with  whom  he  corresponded  in  the  year  1474.  It  is, 
however,  Columbus  himself,  if  we  except  the  peasants 
of  Iceland,  who,  in  all  the  Old  World  of  his  time,  was 
the  best-informed  man  in  all  that  pertains  to  our 
"western  hemisphere,  as  evidently  appears  from  his 
eloquent  pleadings  before  the  courts  of  Europe  and 
the  Commission  of  Salamanca.  He  had  passionately 
studied  all  sacred  and  ancient  lore  regarding  the 
western  world,  he  had  carefully  collected  all  the  in- 
formation from  later  Portuguese  and  other  mariners, 
he  had  perhaps  heard  the  positive  and  well-authenti- 
cated statements  of  Icelanders  in  regard  to  the  North- 
man discoveries  of  America.  We  do  not  believe  that 
Columbus's  great  achievement  was  the  effect  of  divine 
inspiration,  although  God's  providence  may  have  as- 
sisted him  more  than  his  clerical  friends ;  but  we  rather 
think  that  he  acted  upon  the  data  of  his  memory,  which 
had  become  a  store-room  of  all  ancient  and  contempo- 
rary knowledge  of  our  hemisphere. 

The  immortal  discoverer  thus  closes  a  long  yet  in- 
complete series  of  learned  Europeans  who  kept  alive, 
though  faint  it  grew,  the  flame  of  knowledge  of  the 
western  world.  If  it  be  true  that  science  is  pro- 
gressing, our  successors  may  one  day  enjoy  the  great 


ANCIENT   EUROPEAN    GLIMPSES   OF   AMERICA.      161 

satisfaction  of  learning  what  was  known  of  America 
in  such  lands  as  China,  Tartary,  and  Siberia,  what  was 
recorded  of  our  ancient  history  upon  the  richly  carved 
slabs  of  Palenque,  Chichen-Itza,  and  of  other  ruined 
cities  of  Central  America.  But,  compelled  as  we  are 
to  leave  it  to  later  students  to  reveal  what  was  further 
known  of  our  continent  among  foreign  nations,  we  may 
cause  pleasure  to  our  readers  by  gathering  from  his- 
torical records  the  knowledge  which  our  aborigines, 
also,  had  acquired  of  transmarine  countries. 


I.— 11 


ro- 
eat 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DISCOVERIES   OF    EUROPE    BY    AMERICAN    NATIVES. 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  the  various  ancient 
immigrants  into  America  were  acquainted  with  their 
native  countries,  as  we  are  with  England,  Ireland, 
France,  Germany,  Belgium,  etc. ;  and,  no  doubt,  the 
American  progeny  of  those  first  settlers,  centuries  after 
them  yet  long  before  the  Northman  and  the  Columbian 
discoveries,  knew  of  the  Old  World,  which,  in  com- 
parison with  their  own  continental  home,  they  called 
"  an  island  ;"  ^  and  they,  occasionally,  sailed  over  to  it. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  American  Kitchen 
Middings  establishing  settlements  along  the  western 
coast  of  northern  Europe,'^  and  of  the  Mound-builders 
erecting  their  tumuli  and  other  characteristic  monu- 
ments in  Ireland  and  Denmark.'  Farnum*  admits 
the  close  resemblance  which  exists  between  numerous 
earthworks,  sepulchral  tumuli,  implements  of  flint,  and 
pottery  found  in  the  United  States  and  in  the  North  of 
America,  and  similar  structures  and  fragments  discov- 
ered in  the  countries  bordering  on  the  German  Ocean 
and  the  Baltic  Sea.  Nadaillac  *  is  another  of  the  many 
learned  Americanists  from  whose  evidence  we  might 
infer  that  from  our  continent  settlers  went  over  to 
northwestern  Europe,  although,  possibly,  the  contrary 
might  be  the  fact  in  above-mentioned  cases. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  repeat  the  statements  of  Plato,* 


1  Supra,  p.  122. 
*  Supra,  p.  55,  seq. 
'  Supra,  p.  80,  seq. 
162 


♦  P.  13. 

*  Prehietoric  America,  p.  470. 

•  Supra,  pp.  135,  143. 


DISCOVERIES   OF   EUROPE   BY   AMERICAN   NATIVES.      163 


Ocean 


Plato,' 


470. 


from  which  it  would  appear  that  about  twelve  thou- 
sand Egyptian  years  before  Christ  the  inhabitants  of 
our  continent,  through  the  medium  of  their  relations 
with  the  Atlantic  empire,  entertained  for  a  long  time  a 
regular  intercourse  with  the  most  important  portions 
of  Africa  and  Europe ;  nay,  that  they  were  the  rulers 
of  the  Old  World,  until  the  courage  and  military  skill 
of  the  Greeks  and  destructive  elements  of  nature  com- 
bined drove  them  back  to  the  West  and  into  relative 
oblivion.  Let  it  be  added,  that  if  the  severe  critic,  von 
Humboldt,^  does  not  expressly  admit  Plato's  political 
relations  of  the  two  continents,  he  yet  acknowledges 
the  fact  of  an  irruption  into  Europe  from  the  West, 
and  of  a  gigantic  war  between  the  peoples  of  both  the 
east  and  the  west  side  of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar. 

D'Arbois  de  Joubainville^  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment of  another  American  invasion  of  Europe.  "  One 
day,"  he  says,  "  the  aborigines  of  America  concluded  to 
cross  the  Atlantic,  and  landed,  ten  millions  in  number, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Hyperboreans,  whom  they  over- 
powered at  once,  and  surveyed  all  their  country.  They 
asked  information  from  them  in  regard  to  the  Eastern 
World,  and  were  told  that  the  Hyperboreans  were  the 
happiest  of  all  nations  of  Europe,  Africa,  and  Asia. 
Hearing  this,  the  Americans  went  back  without  making 
any  further  explorations  or  conquests." ' 

The  first  record  of  this  remarkable  event  is  from 
Theopompus  of  Chios,  and  was  saved  by  -^lianus 
Claudius.  Silenus  related  to  King  Midas  many  wonders 
of  the  great  continent  and  of  the  two  cities, — Machimus, 
the  warlike,  and  Euseues,  the  city  of  peace, — and  how 
the  inhabitants  of  the  former  once  made  an  attack  upon 
Europe,  and  came  first  upon  the  Hyperboreans ;  but 


1  Examen,  t.  i.  pp.  107,  108. 
'  Ch.  ii.  p.  17. 


'  Cf.  von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t. 
i.  pp.  198,  206. 


Rl  H' 


104       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUH. 


ij 


learning  tlmt  they  were  esteemed  the  most  holy  of  the 
dwellers  in  that  island,  they  "  had  them  in  contem})te, 
detestinjj;  and  abhorring  them  as  naughty  people,  of 
preposterous  properties  and  damnable  behaviour ;  and 
foi  that  cause  interrupted  their  j)rogreHse,  supposing  it 
an  enterprise  of  little  worthinesse  or  rather  none  at  all, 
to  travaile  into  such  a  country."  ' 

There  is  what  is  called  the  Egyptian  theory,  i)re- 
tending  that  America  was  settled  from  Egypt ;  but 
John  T.  C.  Heaviside,  in  his  "  American  Antiquities, 
or  the  New  World  the  Old,  and  the  Old  World  the 
New,"  maintains  the  reverse  theory, — namely,  of  the 
Egyptians  being  migrated  Americans.'"^ 

Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is,  according  to  linguistic  evi- 
dence, highly  probable  that  Americans  not  only  sailed 
to  Europe,  but  established  there  a  settlement  which 
endures  to  this  very  day  ;  we  mean  the  small,  peculiar 
nation  of  the  Basques  in  the  northwestern  portion  of 
Spain.  Ethnologists  are  puzzled  at  the  existence  of  this 
tribe  on  the  boundaries  of  two  j)owerful  kingdoms,  to 
which  they  seem  to  be  unwilling  to  sacrifice  their  cus- 
toms or  their  language  especially.  Linguists  almost 
universally  declare  that  the  Basques  are  Americans, 
perhaps  survivors  of  Plato's  Atlantis,  but  no  Euro- 
peans. D' Arbois  ^  refers  to  the  authority  of  Mr.  Whit- 
ney, one  of  the  most  noted  linguists  of  this  century,  to 
assert  that  no  European  dialect  resembles  the  Basque 
language  in  grammatical  structure  so  closely  as  the 
aboriginal  American  languages.  Short*  remarks  that 
"it  is  worthy  of  note  that  several  eminent  scholars 
have  observed  the  remarkable  similarity  of  grammati- 
cal structure  between  the  Central  American  and  certain 
transatlantic  languages,  especially  the  Basque  and  some 


'  Ap.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  22. 
*  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  41. 


»  Ch.  ii.  p.  22. 
*  P.  476. 


DI8COVERIEH   OF    EUROPE    BY    AMERICAN    NATIVEH.      105 

of  the  laiigiuiges  of  western  Afriea."*  BiiHtiun*  like- 
wise states,  under  the  authority  of  the  learned  Vater, 
that  no  languajjfe,  so  nuieh  as  that  of  the  HasijueH  and 
of  the  Congolese,  resembles  the  language  of  the  Anier- 
iean  aborigines."' 

Peschid  relates  the  opinion  of  J'aul  Hroca,  saying 
that  the  p]uscara,  the  language  of  the  Basques,  sttinds 
quite  alone  or  has  mere  analogies  with  the  Anieriean 
type.*  The  New  American  Cyclopiedia  is  more  frankly 
in  accord  with  the  learned  generally  when  it  states  that 
the  Euscara  has  some  common  traits  with  th(!  Magyar, 
Osmanli,  and  other  dialects  of  the  Ural-Altai(r  family, 
as,  for  instance,  with  the  Finnic  in  the  Old  World, 
as  well  as  with  the  Algonquin  Linapi  language  and 
some  others  in  America.  For  this  reason  the  Basques 
are  classed  by  some  writers  with  the  remains  of  the 
Finnic  stem  of  Europe  in  the  Ubic  family  of  nations, 
and  by  others  in  that  of  the  Allophyle  race.^  We  will 
see  hereafter  that  the  north  Asiatic  and  European 
Finns  were  among  the  first  peoples  to  pass  to  our 
western  hemisphere  in  a  westerly  direction,  about  the 
same  time  that  kindred  tribes  entered  the  American 
continent  across  Behring  Strait.    It  is  more  than  likely 


1  Cf.  Maury,  in  Nott  and  Glid- 
don's  Indigenous  Races  of  the 
Earth,  pp.  81-84 ;  Prescott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  379 
and  n.  49. 

»  Bd.  ii.  S.  437. 

'  Dr.  Farrar,  quoted  by  John  T. 
Short  (p.  476,  n.  2),  says,  "One 
thing  is  certain  in  regard  to  the 
Basque  language, — namely,  that  it 
is  polysynthetic,  like  the  languages 
of  America.  Like  them,  and  them 
only,  it  habitually  forms  its  com- 
pounds by  the  elimination  of  cer- 
tain radicals  in  the  simple  words ; 
so  that,  e.g.,  Uhun,  twilight,  is  con- 


tracted from  hill,  dead,  and  effun, 
day.  .  .  .  The  fact  is  indisputable 
and  is  eminently  noteworthy,  that 
there  has  never  been  any  doubt 
that  this  isolated  language  resem- 
bles in  its  grammatical  structure 
the  aboriginal  languages  of  the 
vast  opposite  continent,  and  those 
alone."  Cf.  Alfred  Maury,  in  Nott 
and  Gliddon's  Indigenous  Races  of 
the  Earth,  p.  48. 

*  Races  of  Men,  ap.  Winchell,  p. 
149. 

"  Art.  Basques,  ap.  Winchell,  p. 
149. 


166       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


11,. 


I 


-i 


also  that  the  Allophyle  race  was  represented  in  Amer- 
ica by  the  Ainos  of  Yesso,  who  found  their  path  along 
the  Kurile  and  the  Aleutian  Islands.  We  should, 
therefore,  find  no  objection  to  the  conclusion  of  learned 
linguists  considering  the  Basques  as  either  Finns  or 
Ainos ;  provided,  however,  that  it  be  granted,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  they  are  descendants  of  these  primeval 
nations  through  the  medium  of  the  American  Linapis, 
or  the  Atlantides  of  Plato,  because  ethnology  teaches 
us  that  the  Allophylians  were  driven  eastward,^  while 
there  is  no  vestige  whatever  of  the  Finnic  family 
having  ever  migrated  from  its  northern  home  in  the 
Old  World  to  the  southwestern  portions  of  Europe. 
Nor  can  it  easily  be  admitted  that  the  Finns  and  cog- 
nate tribes  should  have  migrated  from  their  original 
country  in  northwestern  Asia,  all  the  way  tiirough 
Persia,  Egypt,  northern  Africa,  Spain,  France,  Prussia, 
and  Russia,  to  finally  settle  again  on  the  borders  of 
the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  should,  on  their  long  journey, 
have  left  behind  in  sunny  Spain  a  few  stragglers  to 
become  the  founders  of  the  curious  Basque  nation. 

We  leave  it  to  the  learned  Belgian  missionaries  to 
further  inquire  into  the  linguistic  and  blood  relations 
between  the  aborigines  of  Congo  and  those  of  America, 
which  are  indicated  by  the  foregoing  quotations ;  but  it 
is  proper  to  observe  that,  while  in  the  horizontal  section 
of  the  hair  the  elongated  ellipse  characterizes  the  Negro, 
the  oval  form  belongs  to  the  Aryan,  and  the  circle  d- 
notes  the  American,  the  section  of  a  Basque's  hair  refers 
him  to  the  American  family  .** 

We  have  no  record  to  prove  that  any  national  inter- 
course took  place  betweer  America  and  Europe  since 
the  American  settlement  of  Biscay  or  the  glorious  vic- 


»  Cf.  Winchell,  p.  143. 


*  De  Quatrefages,  p.  364. 


DISCOVERIES   OF    EUROPE   BY    AMERICAN   NATIVES.      167 


tories  of  prehistoric  Athens,  but  there  is  ground  for  the 
supposition  that  the  Americans  never  lost  sight  of  the 
route  to  the  Old  World,  and  that  for  a  long  time  they 
kept  up  some  business  relations  with  it.  Certain  it 
is  that  even  within  historic  times  their  daring  vessels 
landed  on  various  occasions  at  European  points,  and 
we  cannot  help  declaring  that  we  feel  repugnant  to 
admit,  as  sole  factor  of  ancient  transatlantic  voyages, 
the  storms  and  winds  which,  till  this  day,  are  well 
known  to  engulf  many  a  frail  ship,  but  carry  no  longer 
an  Esquimau  fishing-craft  in  all  safety  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

One  of  these  well-authenticated  voyages  was  recorded 
by  Cornelius  Nepos^  in  his  historical  fragments,  as 
stated  by  two  subsequent  authors.  Pliny  "^  says,  "  The 
northern  circumnavigation  is  spoken  of  by  Nepos,  who 
narrates  how  the  king  of  the  Swabians  made  a  present 
to  Quintus  Metellus  Celer,  once  a  colleague  of  the 
consul  L.  Afrianus  and  proconsul  of  Gaul  at  the  time, 
of  some  Indians  who  had  left  their  country  on  a 
trading  voyage  and  had  been  swept  by  tempests  into 
Germany."  Another  author  of  the  first  century  after 
Christ,  Pomponius  Mela,  quotes  the  same  passage  in 
a  slightly  different  manner :  "  Besides  Homer  and  the 
natural  philosophers,"  he  says,  "  who  assert  that  the 
sea  surrounds  the  whole  world,  there  is  also  Cornelius 
Nepos,  whose  authority  is  all  the  greater  for  being  so 
recent.  This  writer  calls  up  as  witness  Q.  Metellus, 
who  told  that,  when  he  was  proconsul  of  Gaul,  the 
king  of  the  Bavarians  gave  him  certain  Indians,  and 
that  by  inquiring  he  had  learned  that  they  had  ar- 
rived from  the  seas  of  India,  and,  after  having  sailed 
all  the  way,  had  finally  set  foot  on  German  soil.' 


( 


>  94-24  B.C. 
»  23-97  A.D. 


S  H 


See  Document  VIII. ,  a,  h. 


168       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Quintus  Metellus,  who  had  no  idea  of  the  eastern 
coast  of  America,  was  misled  by  the  Asiatic  features  of 
his  Indians,  as  was  afterwards  Columbus,  and  mistook 
them  for  natives  of  the  southeastern  parts  of  Asia.  It 
was  believed,  as  appears  from  Pliny  and  Mela,  that  they 
had  circumnavigated  Siberia,  then  entered  the  Caspian 
Sea,  which  was  considered  as  a  gulf  of  the  Arctic  Ocean, 
and  finally  wandered,  wonderfully  enough,  into  Ger- 
many. Gomara  ^  was  the  first  to  trace  home  the  Amer- 
ican merchants  held  in  captivity  by  the  Roman  pro- 
consul. They  were  of  Labrador,  he  says,  and  the 
Romans  mistook  them  for  Indians  because  of  their 
color.  The  learned  have  generally  admitted  both  the 
report  of  Cornelius  Nepos  and  the  interpretation  of  the 
Spanish  historian,  as,  among  others,  von  Humboldt,^ 
Horn,^  Maltebrun,*  and  Hettinger,^  who  quotes  A. 
Wagner,"  in  asserting  that  the  Esquimaux'  canoes  have 
landed  in  Norway  and  on  the  shores  of  the  Baltic 
Sea. 

In  fact,  records  have  been  kept  of  some  of  these 
curious  arrivals  into  Europe  in  later  years ;  but,  con- 
sidering their  relatively  great  number,  we  might  suspect 
of  negligence  the  annalists  of  the  first  Christian  centu- 
ries, when  we  find  no  report  any  more  of  Americans 
crossing  the  Atlantic  Ocean  until  we  reach  the  twelfth 
century  of  our  era. 

Otto,  bishop  of  Freisingen,  who  died  in  the  year 
1158,  relates  that  under  Frederic  Barbarossa,  his  con- 
temporary, a  vessel  from  India  carrying  Indian  mer- 
chants landed  peradventure  in  Lubeck,  a  port  of  Ger- 
many.^ 


'  Historia  de  las  Indias  ;    ^ara- 
goga,  1563,  fo.  vii. 
»  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  262. 

•  Lib.  i.  cap.  ii.  p.  12. 

*  T.  V.  p.  269. 


»  Bd.  ii.  S.  280. 

«  Geschichte  der  Urwelt,  Bd.  ii. 
S.  235. 

'  Cf.  Solorzano  Pereira,  lib.  i. 
cap.  V.  If  12,  p.  51. 


DISCOVEEIES   OF   EUROPE   BY    AMERICAN   NATIVES.      169 


Galvano^  says,  "  In  the  yeere  1153  it  is  written  that 
there  came  to  Lubec  one  canoa  with  certaine  Indians, 
like  unto  a  long  barge,  which  seemed  to  have  come 
from  the  coast  of  Baccalaos"  or  Newfoundland,  "  which 
standeth  in  the  same  latitude  that  Germanic  doth." 
--Eneas  Sylvius,  afterwards  Pope  Pius  II.,  copies  the 
same  report  of  Otto  of  Freisingen  in  his  "  Description 
of  Asia  and  Europe,"  ^  from  which  it  was  probably 
taken  by  subsequent  historians  and  geographers,  such 
as  Gomara,  von  Humboldt,^  and  Gaffarel,*  who  places 
the  event  in  the  year  1160.  In  this  latter  particular 
the  French  historian  agrees  with  Sir  Humphrey  Gil- 
bert, from  which  we  might  suppose  the  former  voyage 
to  have  been  a  financial  success,  and  the  American 
merchants  to  have  soon  landed  in  Lubeck  again. 

Nor  can  we  object  the  frailty  of  the  Esquimau  boats 
against  the  possibility  of  their  extensive  sea- voyages ; 
for  we  have  records  commanding  the  highest  respect, 
and  stating  that  in  the  year  1189  fourteen  men  sailed 
betwixt  the  icebergs  from  Greenland  to  Iceland  in  a 
kayak  that  was  nailed  together  with  wooden  pegs  and 
sewed  up  with  animal  sinews.^  The  captain  of  this 
craft  was  called  Asmundus  Kastandratzius,"  who  sailed 
from  the  Greenland  Cross  Islands  and  safely  landed 
in  the  Icelandic  haven  of  Breidafjord.  Before  that 
feat  he  had  visited  the  Finns  in  the  northern  parts 
of  Russia,  and  in  the  year  1190  he  left  Iceland  again, 
but  his  kayak  was  not  heard  of  since.'' 


*  Cf.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  74,  n.  3. 
"  Cap.  2,  p.  8. 

'  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  269. 

*  Hiatoire,  p.  1(59. 

*  K.  Maurer,  S.  15,  ref.  to  Islenz- 
kir  Annalar. 

*  An  Esquimau,  undoubtedly,  for 
the  Northman  settlers  of  Greenland 


at  the  time  were  provided  with 
seaworthy  ships,  an  exact  copy 
of  which  crossed  the  Atlantic  to 
be  exhibited  at  the  late  Chicago 
World's  Fair. 

'  Langebek,  t.  iii.  p.  69 :  Annales 
Islandorum  Regii. 


! 


170       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Others  of  his  countrymen  lost  their  vessels  on  dry 
land,  for,  as  James  Wallace  relates  in  his  "  A'icount  of 
the  Orkney  Islands,"  an  Esquimau  canoe  was  pre- 
served in  the  church  of  the  island  Burra,  one  of  the 
Orkneys,  where  the  aborigines  of  Greenland  were 
known  under  the  name  of  Finn-men.^ 

In  like  manner.  Von  Humboldt,  in  his  "  Views  of 
Nature,"  refers  to  well-authenticated  cases  of  American 
natives,  supposed  to  have  been  from  Labrador  or 
Greenland,  who  had  been  carried  by  currents  from  the 
Western  to  the  Eastern  Continent.  There  is  till  this 
day  a  canoe  in  the  museum  of  Marischal  College, 
Aberdeen,  which  was  picked  up  by  a  ship  on  the 
Aberdeen  coast,  with  an  Esquimau  in  it  still  alive  and 
surrounded  by  his  fishing-gear.^ 

Bastian^  borrows  from  Pallas  the  information  that 
the  Esquimaux  were  driven  or  sailed  to  the  Orkney 
island  Eda  as  late  as  the  year  1680;  but  Gaifarel,* 
who  follows  the  account  of  Wallace,  places  this  visit — 
another,  perhaps — two  years  later.  Still,  both  agree 
to  record  at  the  date  of  1684  one  more  voyage  of  the 
people  of  northeastern  America  to  Westrey,  another 
island  of  the  Orkney  group.  The  latter  adds  that  one 
of  their  kayaks  was  placed  on  exhibition  in  the  city  of 
Edinburgh.^ 

Several  authors  are  of  the  opinion  that  commercial 
interests  were  the  object  of  these  American  voyagers, 
and  we  feel  inclined  to  think  that  they  were  simply 
occasional  instances  of  an  uninterrupted  business  in- 
tercourse between  northeastern  America  and  the  north- 
ern islands  and  peninsulas  of  western  Europe.  This 
intercourse,  as  we  shall  notice  farther  on,  had  com- 


*  Von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  ii. 
pp.  260,  272. 
»  Southall,  p.  573. 


»  Bd.  ii.  S.  438. 

*  Histoire,  p.  170. 

»  Cf.  also  Maltebrun,  t.  v.  p.  259. 


DISCOVERIES   OF    EUROPE   BY    AMERICAN   NATIVES.      171 


menced  before  the  eighth  century  tifter  Christ,  and, 
not  unlikely,  long  before  our  era,  as  Plutarch  ^  would 
allow  us  to  suppose,  and  the  relative  narrowness  of 
the  north  Atlantic  channel,  together  with  the  prox- 
imity of  its  archipelagos  and  capes,  would  prompt  us 
to  admit. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  their  neighboring  European 
islands  only  that  ancient  Americans  directed  their 
prows.  They  have  been  noticed  also  in  more  southern 
latitudes.  Cardinal  Peter  Bembo  ^  relates  in  the  year 
1508  as  a  curiosity  that,  whilst  the  Europeans  were 
discovering  various  parts  of  the  Western  Continent,  the 
Americans  were  exploring  the  shores  of  the  Eastern. 
"  Whilst  a  French  vessel  was  sailing  near  the  coasts  of 
Brittany,"  he  says,  "  it  took  up  a  skiff  built  of  saplings 
split  in  two  and  covered  with  solid  bark  of  trees,  and 
containing  seven  men  of  small  size  and  of  a  dusk  color. 
The  faces  of  these  men  were  broad  and  marked  with 
violet  streaks.  They  were  dressed  in  fish-skins  covered 
with  stains,  and  wore  on  their  heads  a  crown  of  painted 
reeds  interwoven  with  seven  ornaments  like  earlaps. 
They  ate  raw  flesh  and  drank  blood  as  we  do  wine. 
No  one  could  understand  their  speech.  Six  of  them 
died,  and  the  seventh,  a  young  man,  was  taken  to 
Rouen,  where  the  king  resided." 

The  continuator  of  Palmerius  recounts  the  same  event 
in  somewhat  varying  terms.  "  In  the  year  1509,"  he 
says,  "  there  was  carried  to  Rouen,  a  city  of  France,  a 
portable  boat,  like  those  that  we  can  see  in  the  New 
World ;  and  in  it  were  seven  Indians  of  that  country, 
who  were  of  a  dark-reddish  color,  like  men  of  the 
woods,  with  thick  lips  and  scars  on  their  faces  extending 
from  the  ear  to  the  middle  of  the  chin,  and  resembling 


1 


»  Supra,  p.  123. 


*  See  Document  IX. ,  a,  b. 


if  (1 


lt 


I 


]     I 


172       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

livid  veins  crossing  their  cheeks.  They  were  naked, 
covered  only  with  a  belt  provided  with  a  contrivance 
to  cover  their  shame.  They  had  no  beard  at  all,  no 
down,  nor  a  single  hair  with  the  exception  of  those  of 
the  head  and  eye-lids."  It  is  hardly  worth  while  to 
remark  that  the  livid  scars  or  violet  streaks  on  the  faces 
of  the  foreign  visitors  were  nothing  else  but  the  fanciful 
colored  stripes  with  which  our  aborigines  still  enhance 
their  natural  beauty.^ 

It  seems,  indeed,  that  the  Americans  were  best  ac- 
quainted with  the  northern  parts  of  Europe,  but  they 
did  not  stop  their  explorations  at  the  latitude  of  Brit- 
tany. Farther  south,  at  the  very  heart  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  they  were  seen  in  their  "  barcas  cubiertas"  or 
covered  boats, — namely,  in  the  Azores,  where  the  Flem- 
ish discoverers  and  settlers  admired,  during  the  fif- 
teenth century,  that  mysterious  race  of  men  who  seemed 
to  rise  from  the  ocean  like  fish  in  their  bivalvular 
shell.^ 

We  might,  on  reliable  authority,^  extend  further  the 
list  of  the  several  discoveries  of  Europe  by  ancient 
Americans,  if  their  numerous  landings  on  European 
soil  could  be  titled  with  this  misnomer ;  but  we  venture 
to  say  that  the  above  related  facts  are  proof  sufiicient 
of  a  thesis  which  would  state  that  both  the  Northmen 
and  Columbus,  in  making  their  glorious  discoveries  of 
the  American  continent,  did  no  more  than  courageously 
follow  the  track  laid  out  for  them  long  before  by  those 
people  whose  fallen  progeny  has  earned,  through  its 
crimes  and  degradation,  to  be  ruled  and  civilized  again 
by  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe.   Written  history  is 


'  Cf.  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  ii.  p.  14  ;  *  Cf.  von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t. 

von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  ii.  p.  259. 

261 ;  Gaffarel,  HiBtoire,  p.  169  ;  Bas-  *  Gravier,  p.  199  ;  alii, 
tian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  433. 


DISCOVERIES   OF   EUROPE    BY    AMERICAN    NATIVES.      173 


often  the  most  criminal  of  tribunals,  and  we  need  the 
judgment  of  Christ  to  correct  the  mistakes  of  the  high- 
est courts  on  earth.  That  is  known  long  since,  but  in 
the  meanwhile  we  venture  to  say  that  the  aboriginal 
inhabitants  of  our  hemisphere  have  not  till  this  day 
received  their  meed  for  ancient  bravery,  nautical  skill, 
and  wonderful  attainments  in  geography  and  in  every 
branch  of  material  advancement  and  of  civilization 
generally.  Ancient,  prehistoric  America  was,  indeed, 
a  civilized  world. 


// 


'Ki 


nl 


III 


J 


f  - 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 

We  are  almost  afraid  to  state  that  the  most  ancient 
nations  of  America  had  attained  a  high  degree  of  civ- 
ilization ;  for,  indeed,  this  assertion  contradicts  twice 
the  pet  theory  of  quite  a  class  of  scientists, — the  novel 
modern  law  of  perpetual  human  progress,  according  to 
which  our  contemporary  Red  Skins  should  all  be  artists 
and  philosophers,  while  their  oldest  predecessors  on  this 
continent  should  have  burrowed  in  the  earth,  stupid  as 
brutes,  if  they  were  not  brutes  altogether.  We  feel 
reassured,  however,  in  considering  that  the  specious 
theory  is  not  endorsed,  either  by  venerable  authors  of 
old  or  by  learned  men  of  modern  times ;  and  we  shall 
prove  that  it  is  not  in  accord  with  stubborn  facts. 

Many  ancient  peoples  of  the  Orient,  if  not  all  of 
them,  says  Zahm,^  were  firm  believers  in  the  golden 
age,  an  age  of  justice  and  happiness  which  distin- 
guished the  first  era  of  the  world's  history  from  all 
subsequent  periods,  and  placed  the  beginnings  of  hu- 
manity on  a  much  higher  level  than  our  race  has  since 
been  able  to  attain.  "Then,"  says  Hesiod,  in  his 
"  Works  and  Days,"  "  without  chagrin  or  disquiet,  ex- 
empt from  labor  and  sorrow,  men  lived  like  gods.  In- 
firmity, the  companion  of  old  age,  was  unknown. 
People  enjoyed,  even  in  advanced  years,  the  pleasures 
of  youth,  and  death  to  them  was  but  a  sweet  sleep. 
A  fruitful  earth  spontaneously  furnished  the  most  de- 


174 


*  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  562. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


176 


licious  fruits,  and  the  abundance  thereof  removed  all 
occasion  of  envy.  The  peaceful  and  voluntary  occu- 
pation which  they  found  in  providing  for  their  daily 
needs  removed  the  tedium  of  leisure  and  the  weariness 
entailed  by  idleness."  ^ 

We  have  no  positive  proof  to  say  that  primordial 
Americans  enjoyed  paradisian  bliss,  although  the  state- 
ment of  the  great  poet  has  its  counterpart  in  the  tra- 
dition of  several  Indian  tribes,  one  of  which  was 
written  down  by  a  Chippewa  native  poet,  and  is  here 
annexed.^  Sir  William  Dawson,  in  his  "  Fossil  Man," 
and  Southall,  in  his  "  Recent  Origin  of  Man,"  de- 
clare it  an  unfounded  assumption  that  primitive  man 
was  a  savage.''  What  we  have  said  before  may  con- 
vince any  unprejudiced  reader  that  our  prehistoric 
nations — the  Mound-builders,*  the  Mayas,^  and  the 
Pueblos*' — were  no  savages,  and  the  description  of 
Atlantis,  which  we  have  read''  from  Plato's  "  Critias," 
strikingly  confirms  the  conclusive  tale  told  us  in  regard 


'  "  The  arguments  that  the  evo- 
lution school  of  archffiology  has 
based  on  the  development  of  civil- 
ization, as  attested  by  the  alleged 
gradual  transition  from  the  use  of 
stone  to  that  of  bronze,  and  from 
bronze  to  iron,  are  decidedly  nega- 
tived in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor. 
In  the  finds  at  Troy  especially 
there  is  the  most  striking  evidence 
of  devolution  or  degeneration  of 
the  inhabitante  who  successively 
occupied  this  historic  spot.  Here 
as  well  as  at  Mycenae,  the  orna- 
ments and  implements  discovered 
even  in  the  lowest  strata,  far  from 
indicating  a  state  of  savagery  and 
utter  degradation,  betoken  one  of 
high  civilization,  and  of  as  thor- 
ough an  acquaintance  with  the 
working  of  metals  and  the  fictile 


arts  as  was  displayed  at  subsequent 
epochs.  In  the  light  of  Schlie- 
niann's  discoveries,  not  to  speak 
of  others  pointing  in  the  same  di- 
rection, made  in  Egypt  and  among 
the  ruins  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia, 
and  bearing  on  the  condition  of 
primitive  man  in  the  Orient,  the 
conclusion  seems  to  be  inevitable 
that  Hesiod  was  right  and  that 
the  modern  evolution  school  is 
wrong,  that  the  history  of  our  race 
is  not  one  of  development  but  one 
of  degeneration."  (Zahm,  Bible, 
p.  272.) 

"  See  Document  X. 

»  Cf.  Justin  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  380. 

*  Supra,  pp.  61-75. 

»  Supra,  pp.  85-89. 

«  Supra,  pp.  102,  104. 

'  Supra,  pp.  137-141. 


176       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


i '  ( 


^'f 


I 


to  the  advanced  civilization  of  the  primitive  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Western  Workl  by  the  relics  of  the  grand 
and  artistic  monuments  of  America's  primitive  races. 
But  little  more  should  be  required  to  prove  the  thesis 
which  we  set  forth  as  a  conclusion  of  the  foregoing 
chapter.  Proceeding  from  north  to  south,  we  find  from 
distance  to  distance  unmistakable  traces  of  mighty, 
skilful,  and  learned  nations  that  had  either  wholly  dis- 
appeared from  the  face  of  the  earth,  or  had  become 
degenerated  and  degraded  to  such  an  extent  as  to  be 
irrecognizable  at  the  time  of  not  only  the  Spanish,  but 
even  of  the  Northman  discoveries. 

Vestiges  of  artistic  progress  are  left  in  America's 
northernmost  regions,  but  its  date  could  not  be  assigned, 
says  von  Humboldt.^  W.  Gleeson  relates  ^  that  shortly 
before  leaving  Lower  California  the  Jesuits  discovered 
in  the  mountains  several  extensive  caves  hewn  out  of 
the  solid  rock,  like  those  of  Elephanta  in  southern 
Hindoostan.  In  these,  painted  on  the  rock,  were  rep- 
resentations of  men  and  women  decently  clad,  as  well 
as  of  different  species  of  animals.  One  of  the  caves  is 
described  by  a  missionary  as  fifty  feet  long,  fifteen  high, 
and  formed  in  the  manner  of  an  arch.  The  entrance 
being  entirely  open,  there  was  sufficient  light  to  observe 
the  painted  figures.  The  males  were  represented  with 
their  arms  extended  and  somewhat  elevated,  while  one 
of  the  females  appeared  with  her  hair  flowing  loosely 
over  her  shoulders  and  a  crown  of  feathers  on  her  head. 
Those  pictures  did  not  reproduce  the  modern  tribes, 
whose  males  entirely  dispensed  with  clothes,  had  not 
the  least  idea  of  artistic  painting,  nor  were  in  pos- 
session of  tools  to  dig  comfortable  habitations  in  the 
heart  of  the  rock  ;  but  they  gave  convincing  evidence 


'  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  136. 


"  Vol.  i.  p.  100. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


177 


of  a  more  ancient  population,  more  enlightened  and 
more  advanced  in  material  civilization,  aa  it  was  also 
of  greater  physical  stature.  The  latter  is  confirmed  as 
well  by  the  assertions  of  the  inhabitants,  who  unani- 
mously afiirmed  to  the  first  Christian  missionaries  the 
prior  existence  of  a  powerful,  gigantic  race,  as  by  the 
fossil  remains  there  discovered,  for  instance,  by  the 
human  skeleton  measuring  eleven  feet,  found  by  Father 
Joseph  Rbtea  at  the  mission  of  Kadakamong. 

This  Indian  tradition  in  regard  to  a  previous  gigantic 
race  is  wide-spread  among  the  native  races  of  the  Pacific 
coast.  The  historian  of  these  numerous  tribes  does  not 
unreasonably  explain  it  in  the  following  manner :  ^  "It 
results,"  he  says,  "  from  the  existence  of  grand  ruins  in 
many  parts  of  the  country,  far  beyond  the  constructive 
powers  of  the  savage  native,  and  therefore,  in  his  eyes, 
the  work  of  giants, — as  they  were  intellectually,  when 
compared  with  their  degenerate  descendants,"  whom  the 
conquistadores  met  in  New  Spain. 

The  Mayas  were  intellectual  giants,  indeed.  The 
ruins  of  their  vast  public  works,  of  their  costly  edifices, 
of  their  sculptures  and  paintings,  and  of  their  finely 
carved  symbolic  writings  attest  the  height  of  a  civiliza- 
tion of  which  we  might  well  be  proud  to-day.  And 
yet  all  these  evidences  of  a  glorious  past  lay  buried 
for  long  centuries  before  Columbus's  discovery  in  the 
virgin  forests  of  Yucatan.  Palenque,  Uxmal,  Copan, 
and  several  other  ruined  cities  of  Central  America  are 
as  grand  and  beautiful  monuments  on  the  cemeteries 
of  the  New  World  as  are  Troy,  Babylon,  and  Thebes 
on  those  of  the  Old ;  and  their  antiquity  does  not 
seem  to  be  less  venerable.  They  certainly  pertain  to 
America's  remotest  period.^     They  were  ruins,  more 


>  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  139. 
I.— 12 


'  Short,  p.  519;  CongrSs  Scient., 
viii.  sec.  p.  111. 


178       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


h 


^   I 


I     ti  I 


If 

u 


i!j    «. 


1' 


than  they  are  now,  in  the  sixteenth  century  ;  the  natives 
of  the  neigliboring  region  knew  nothing  of  their  origin, 
and  no  notice  whatever  of  the  existence  of  such  cities  aj> 
pears  in  the  annals  of  the  surrounding  civili/x'd  nations 
during  the  eiglit  or  nine  centuries  preceding  the  Span- 
ish conquest.  Bancroft'  is  even  of  the  opinion  that 
the  Maya  grandeur  was  already  at  its  height  several 
centuries  before  Christ.  We  might  here  recall  to  mind 
a  pertinent  remark  of  the  learned  von  Humboldt,'^  say- 
ing, "  I  do  not  pretend  that  no  intellectual  culture  or 
social  order  has  reigned  in  New  Spain  before  the  time 
of  the  Aztecs,  for  we  know  that  the  Toltecs,  successors 
to  the  Mayas,  possessed  a  hieroglyphic  writing  and 
knew  astronomy  well  enough  to  have  a  more  correct 
idea  of  the  year's  duration  than  most  European  na- 
tions, although  they  had  sunk  into  degradation  already 
before  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era." 

The  same  author  •'  makes  a  similar  observation  in  re- 
gard to  the  South  American  aborigines.  "  We  know," 
he  says,  "  that  the  Peruvian  tribes  were  fallen  to  the 
lowest  level  of  brutality  before  the  mysterious  arrival 
of  the  Incas."  Horn's  sickening  description  of  their 
horrid  savagery  leaves  no  doubt  of  the  geographer's 
assertion ;  *  yet  there  are  vestiges,  he  adds,  of  civili- 
zation in  Peru  anterior  to  the  Celestials'  monuments 
of  Cuzco.  On  the  shores  of  Lake  Titicaca  in  Peru 
still  endure  imposing  remains  of  cyclopean  architec- 
ture, which  the  Peruvians  themselves  acknowledge  to 
be  of  older  date  than  the  advent  of  the  Incas,  and 
to  have  furnished  these  with  the  models  of  their 
later  buildings.^ 


1  Vol.  V.  pp.  167,  539. 

*  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  133. 
'Ibid. 

*  Horniufl,  lib.  iv.  cap.  x.  p.  248. 


*  Cieza  de  Leon,  Cronica,  cap. 
105,  ap.  Prescott,  History  of  the 
Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  pp.  11, 
12. 


■ 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


179 


The  impcriHluihle  rt'iimiiiH  of  tlie  oldest  archite(!ture 
in  Peru  ought  to  he  of  theinselvcH  HufHcient  evidence  of 
a  civilization  that  wa.s  never  equalled  in  historic  times. 
The  most  interesting  are  those  of  the  palace  or  temple 
near  the  village  of  Tiahuanaco,  on  the  southern  side  of 
Lake  Titicaca.  They  consist  of  a  (piadrangular  space, 
entered  by  the  famous  monolithic  door-way  and  sur- 
rounded with  large  stones  standing  on  end,  and  of  a 
hill  or  mound  encircled  with  ruins  of  a  wall  consisting 
of  enormous  blocks  of  stone.  The  whole  covers  an  area 
about  twelve  hundred  feet  long  and  one  thousand  and 
fifty  feet  wide.  There  is  a  lesser  temple,  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  distant,  containing  stones  thirty-six  feet  long 
by  seven  broad,  and  others  of  sixteen  by  twenty-six 
feet,  having  recesses  chiselled  in  them  which  have  been 
compared  to  seats  of  judgment.  The  weight  of  two  of 
those  stones  has  been  calculated  at  from  one  hundred 
and  fortv  to  two  hundred  tons  each.' 

Cronan^  gives  us  similar  information.  In  the  ruins 
of  Tiahuanaco,  he  says,  are  to  be  found  stones  twenty- 
five  feet  long  and  six  feet  thick,  and  in  one  of  its 
smaller  temples  lies  a  stone  of  nearly  eight  feet  wide 
that  is  thirty-seven  feet  in  length.  Their  average 
weight  is  estimated  at  two  hundred  tons.  The  won- 
der waxes  greater  when  we  reflect  that,  as  no  quar- 
ries could  be  found  in  or  near  Tiahuanaco,  these  huge 
masses  were  hauled  a  distance  of  from  eighteen  to 
forty-eight  miles  over  a  country  like  that  where  the 
ruins  remain. 

The  monolithic  portal  of  the  palace  of  Tiahuanaco  is 
one  block  of  hard  trachytic  rock,  now  deeply  sunk  into 
the  ^jTound.  Its  height  above  the  ground  is  seven  feet 
two  inches,  its  width  thirteen  feet  five  inches,  its  thick- 


'  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  215. 


S.  81,  8eq. 


M! 


FT 


i^ 


i^iii 


180       HISTOi  Y  OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUTinUS. 

ness  one  foot  and  a  half,  and  the  opening  is  four  fe'  ' 
and  a  half  by  two  feet  nine  inches !  The  outer  side  is 
ornamented  with  accurately  cut  niches  and  rectangular 
mouldings.  The  whole  of  the  inner  side,  from  a  line 
level  with  the  upper  lintel  of  the  door-way  to  the  top, 
is  a  mass  of  sculpture,  which  speaks  to  us,  in  difficult 
riddles,  alas!  of  the  customs  and  art-culture,  of  t^^e 
beliefs  and  traditions  of  a  by-gone  race,  and  ol'  a  won- 
derful ancient  and  lost  civilization. 

The  masonry  of  the  ruins  is  admirably  worked,  ac- 
cording to  the  testimony  of  all  visitors.  Squier  says, 
"  The  stone  itself  is  dark  and  exceedingly  hard 
trachyte,  it  is  faced  with  a  precision  that  no  skill  can 
excel,  its  lines  are  perfectly  drawn  and  its  right-angles 
turned  with  an  accuracy  that  the  most  careful  geometer 
could  not  surpass.  I  do  not  believe,"  he  adds,  "  there 
exists  a  better  piece  of  stone-cutting,  the  material  con- 
sidered, on  this  or  on  the  other  continent." 

From  all  this  Winsor  draws  a  conclusion  which  a 
moment's  rejection  will  perfectly  justify :  "  There  is 
reason,"  he  s;:ys,  *'  to  believe  that  a  powerful  empire 
had  existed  in  Peru  centuries  before  the  rise  of  the 
Inca  dynasty." 

Sacsahuaman,  the  fortress  overlooking  the  city  of 
Cuzco,  is,  beyond  comparison,  the  grandest  monument 
of  an  ancient  civilization  in  the  New  World.  Like  the 
pyramids  and  the  coliseum,  it  is  imperishable.  At 
Ollantay-tampu  or  Tambo  the  ruins  are  of  various 
styles,  but  the  later  works  are  raised  on  ancient 
Cyclopean  foundations.  There  are  six  porphyry  slabs 
of  six  or  seven  feet  by  twelve  feet  high,  stone  beams 
fifteen  and  twenty  feet  long,  stairs  and  recesses  hewn 
out  of  the  solid  rock  I 

It  is  clear  from  the  evidence  of  the  most  careful 
investigators,  such  as  Cieza  de  Leon,  that  there  was  no 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


181 


real  knowledge  of  the  origin  of  these  wonders  at  the 
time  of  the  Incas.^ 

We  should  here  be  allowed  to  make  a  suggestion, — 
namely,  that  the  breaches  made  by  the  elements  and 
time  in  the  monuments  of  Titicaca  and  Sacsahuaman 
be  filled  up  with  modern  brick  walls,  and  further  fitted 
out  with  all  modern  improvements,  for  the  comfortable 
accommodation  of  all  such  scientists,  and  anthropolo- 
gists especially,  who  suffer  with  the  mania  of  necessary 
human  progress  and  of  progress  generally,  and  who 
refuse  to  see  that  at  the  very  beginning  of  humanity, 
inasmuch  as  history  and  archeology  are  able  to  testify, 
man  was  civilized  to  such  a  degree  as  to  put  to  shame, 
even  the  least  important,  the  material  manifestations  of 
human  intelligence  being  taken  into  consideration,  the 
proud,  self-complacent  elect,  we  shall  not  say  of  modern 
science,  but  of  modern  literature.  The  comparison  be- 
tween the  grand,  lasting,  inimitable  achievements  of 
a  nation  anterior  to  the  Incas  and  the  frail  works  of 
modern  progress  would  be  a  revelation  to  them,  and 
allow  them  henceforth  to  scan  their  own  species  with 
sane,  naked  eyes. 

Future  explorers  are  likely  to  discover  in  Chili  and 
Patagonia  ruins  as  interesting  as  those  of  Peru ;  but, 
walking  on  paths  opened  already,  we  shall  cross  the 
Andes  to  find  further  traces  of  primeval  American 
civilization  in  the  ancient  graveyards  of  the  Ancon, 
in  the  trenches  of  the  Amazon,  and  on  the  islands 
of  Marrajo.  Suffice  it  to  state  that  here,  as  well  as 
all  along  the  Pacific  coast,  there  are  evident  traces  of 
a  race  anterior  to  the  modern  Indians,  and  most  inter- 
esting for  its  advanced  degree  of  civilization.^ 

All  these  are  some  of  the  physical  evidences  of  the 
material  progress  of  the  first  inhabitants  of  our  western 


'  WiiiBor,  vol.  i.  pp.  215-221. 


»  Boletfn,  t.  xxi.  p.  222. 


182       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'    I 


■«. 


'  **• 


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til'. 


k 
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■1  i 


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hemisphere ;  and  this  material  civilization,  if  we  may 
use  that  expression,  is  a  significant  token  of  their 
mental  condition  ;  for  it  is  well  known  that  the  mind 
has  ever  directed  the  hand.  Baldwin  truthfullv  asserts,^ 
in  general,  that  "  the  most  ancient  people  of  antiquity 
at  the  earliest  periods  in  which  we  can  see  and  study 
them,  show  us  that  civilization  was  older  than  their 
time.  It  is  apparent  in  their  architecture,  in  the  varied 
possessions  and  manifestations  of  their  civilized  life,  in 
their  riches  and  magnificence,  and  in  the  splendor  of 
their  temples  and  royal  palaces,  that  they  had  many  of 
the  arts  and  sciences  which  we  deem  modern." 

No  reader  can  expect  direct  and  absolute  proof  that 
America's  primeval  aborigines  were  in  possession  of 
civilization,  justly  so  called ;  that  all  their  faculties  of 
body,  mind,  and  heart  were  bearing  fruitful  blossom ; 
but  we  have  all  reasons  to  admit  that  their  society  was 
built  upon  the  deepest  foundations  of  true  civilization, 
upon  the  belief  in  one  true  God,  and  upon  the  practice 
of  offering  sacrifices  to  Him.  Plato's  "  Critias"  is  ex- 
plicit on  this  latter  particular,^  and  modern  science  has 
clearly  established  that  monotheism,  the  only  rational 
religion,  becomes  the  more  apparent  as  we  extend 
farther  our  researches  into  the  history  of  the  nations, 
not  only  of  Asia,  but  of  America  as  well.^ 

It  is  a  question  as  interesting  as  difficult  to  determine 
what  was  the  source  of  America's  primordial  civilization. 
Were  the  vaunted  theory  of  progress  as  true  as  it  is 
false,  were  it  a  law  of  nature  as  it  is  an  expression  of 
modern  pride,  it  would  be  but  a  facile  induction  that 
our  most  ancient  and  wonderful  monuments  were  erected 
by  a  race  that  had  slowly  but  surely  developed  from  the 
most  abject  barbarism  to  a  state  of  admirable  culture. 


'  p.  31. 

*  Supra,  p.  141. 


'  Congrfiri    Scient.,    vili.   sec.    p. 
114  ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  187. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


183 


7. 


We  could  not,  historically,  contradict  this  plausible 
assertion,  but  should  it  rest  on  fact  we  would,  by  right 
of  the  same  inductive  reasoning,  expect  to  find  our 
Red  Skins,  not  in  the  huts  and  wigwams  wherein  they 
live,  but  in  palaces  built  of  carved  and  polished  moun- 
tain-peaks. The  savagery  of  our  Indians,  as  well  as 
the  abject  condition  of  millions  of  Africans,  and,  in 
fact,  of  all  nations  upon  v/liom  never  shone  the  light 
of  Christianity,  is  a  sufficient  rebuke  of  a  theory  held 
by  thoughtless  pedants,  by  misnomer  entitled  modern 
scientists.^  The  rude  African  tribes  described  by 
Agatharchides  of  old,  and  lately  by  James  Bruce,  have 
not  improved  their  condition.  Thousands  of  years 
have  passed  over  them  without  bringing  them  any  ma- 
terial or  mental  progress,  any  melioration  or  discovery. 

Were  not  the  conclusion  of  a  saddening  comparison 
between  the  evident  culture  of  ancient  American  abo- 
rigines and  the  condition  of  our  modern  Indians  a 
sufficient  ground  for  our  objection,  we  might  further 
adduce  the  statements  of  other  scientists,  whose  learning 
and  wisdom  have  sustained  their  renown  for  many  cen- 
turies. Hesiod,  as  intimated  before,  together  with  the 
majority  of  the  earlier  Greek  and  Oriental  writers, 
regarded  mankind  as  having  descended  from  a  higher 
to  a  lower  plane,  and  stated  that  people  of  the  later 
periods  of  the  world's  history  appeared  degraded,  when 
compared  with  those  who  lived  happy  and  godlike  lives 
in  the  golden  age  of  humanity's  beginnings. 

Modern  archaeology  seconds  ancient  philosophy. 
According  to  the  brilliant  researches  of  Dr.  Sclilie- 
mann  at  Hissarlik,  the  site  of  ancient  Troy,  and  at 
Mycense,  there  was  neither  a  stone  age  nor  a  metal  age 
in  Greece  and  Asia  Minor.     Stone,  bronze,  and  iron 

*  Cf.  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America,  p.  520. 


1^ 


p 


I 


184       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

are  utterly  confounded  in  the  strata  uncovered  by  the 
scientific  excavations  at  Troy,  and  the  deeper  the  dig- 
gings the  more  manifest  are  the  evidences  of  advanced 
culture. 

Rousseau's  pure  state  of  nature  has  been  discovered 
nowhere  yet,  while,  on  the  contrary,  as  soon  as  we  step 
over  the  limits  of  Christian  realms  we  meet  with  de- 
grading unnatural  vices,  such  as  polygamy,  drunken- 
ness, debauchery,  idolatry,  and  with  consequent  misery 
of  the  masses,  and  depopulation.  Every  stage  and 
degree  of  barbarism  is,  therefore,  a  falling  off  from  a 
higher  culture  more  in  conformity  with  the  innate 
dictates  of  the  human  reason  and  heart.  "  Man  was 
born  to  go  astray,  and  he  went  astray,"  says  a  modern 
infidel  philosopher ;  ^  and  Nadaillac,  though  in  very 
mild  terms,  applies  the  principle  to  our  special  subject 
when  saying,  *'  The  still  enduring  monuments  of  pre- 
historic American  aborigines  would  appear  to  justify 
a  belief  that  the  Indians  once  possessed  a  civilization 
superior  to  the  condition  to  which  their  descendants 
have  been  reduced  by  defeat  or  indulgence  in  too  much 
alcohol  and  other  causes."  Ancient  civilization  is  at- 
tested by  eloquent  ruins,  and  present  degradation  stalks 
under  our  eyes.  Yet  the  two  extremes  should  not  com- 
mand a  universal  verdict  for  all  time ;  and  we  are  of 
the  opinion  that  De  Costa  gives  the  truthful  history 
of  American  civilization  condensed  in  a  few  words 
when  he  writes :  ^  "  From  the  mounds  and  other  pre- 
historic monuments  found  in  America  we  can  only 
infer  that,  age  after  age,  nations  and  tribes  rose  to 
greatness  and  then  fell  into  decline,  barbarism  and  rude 
culture  holding  alternate  sway."  The  final  result,  how- 
ever, of  all  these  oscillations  proves  rather  unfavorable 


Bailly,  p.  38. 


'  Pre-Columbian  Discovery,  p.  9. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


185 


in  all  the  territories  of  the  New  World  where  the 
church  found  no  opportunity  yet  to  exert  her  beneficial 
influence  upon  the  natives.  The  meditations  of  a  late 
serious  thinker  have  partly  become  American  history 
and,  no  doubt,  are  prophecy  as  well.  "  In  the  same 
measure,"  says  Kastner,^  "  that  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God  becomes  darkened  in  man's  heart,  super- 
stitious ideas  extend  their  influence,  egotism  develops 
and  causes  selfishness  and  revenge  to  take  the  place 
of  pity  and  mercy,  brutal  instincts  replace  reason  and 
infect  the  soul  with  savage  propensities,  and  their  con- 
sequences are  homicidal  orgies  and  all  the  sequels  of 
abominations  and  infamies,  which  at  all  times  were 
the  inseparable  company  of  idolatry  and  devil-worship. 
Why  did  God  doom  to  destruction  and  anathema  the 
ancient  inhabitants  of  Palestine  ?  '  Because  they  did 
works  hateful  to  Thee,  O  Lord,  by  their  sorceries  and 
wicked  sacrifices.  And  those  merciless  murderers  of 
their  children  and  eaters  of  men's  bowels  and  devourers 
of  blood,  when  they  swore  by  Thee  ;  and  those  parents 
sacrificing  with  their  own  hands  helpless  souls :  it  was 
Thy  will  to  destroy  them  by  the  hands  of  our  parents, 
that  the  land  which  is  of  all  most  dear  to  Thee  might 
receive  a  worthy  colony  of  the  children  of  God.'  "  ^ 

Philanthropic  hearts  honestly  bewail  the  gradual 
extinction  of  our  Indian  tribes  under  the  fatherly  care 
of  our  government,  but  historians  rather  busy  them- 
selves with  the  past,  and  inquire  into  the  actual  origin 
of  the  high  culture  that  rendered  immortal  the  ances- 
tors or  predecessors  of  our  despised  and  vanishing 
aboriginal  races. 

H.  H.  Bancroft^  slightingly  states  that  a  former 
vicar  general  of  the  Catholic  diocese  of  Boston,  the 


»  P.  114. 

» Wisdom,  xii.  4-8. 


Vol.  V.  p.  125. 


fil 


ij  I 


111 


IH 


id 


I'?' 


186       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Rev.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  "  attempts  to  prove  that 
all  civilization  originated  in  America  or  in  the  Occi- 
dent instead  of  in  the  Orient,  as  has  always  been 
supposed ;"  and,  a  few  pages  farther,  he  seems  to 
endorse,  or  even  improve  upon,  the  same  theory  when, 
misled  by  prejudice,  he  pens  the  following  lines  :  ^  "It 
only  remains  now  to  speak  of  the  theory  which  ascribes 
an  autochthonic  origin  to  the  Americans.  The  time  is 
not  long  past  when  such  a  supposition  would  have  been 
regarded  as  impious,  and  even  at  this  day  its  advocates 
may  expect  discouragement,  if  not  rebuke  from  certain 
quarters.  It  is,  nevertheless,  an  opinion  worthy  of 
the  greatest  consideration,  and  one  which,  if  we  may 
judge  by  the  recent  results  of  scientific  investigation^ 
may  eventually  prove  to  be  scientifically  correct."  The 
theories  of  Bancroft  and  of  Brasseur  are  inseparably 
connected,  and  are  absolutely  true  on  the  simple  con- 
dition that  Adam  and  Eve  were  created  in  America ; 
for  it  is  from  Adam,  as  the  Greek  lexicographer 
Suidas  correctly  states,  that  arts  and  sciences  are  de- 
rived. Should  not,  however,  such  be  the  case,^  or 
should  the  first  inhabitants  of  our  hemisphere  have 
grovelled  in  barbarism,  as  it  is  admitted  no  less  gratui- 
tously than  generally,  then  it  is  evident  that  prehistoric 
civilization  was  imported  into  America  ;  because  as  men 
gather  no  grapes  of  thorns  nor  figs  of  thistles,"^  so  cannot 
the  causes  of  savagery,  error,  and  immorality  develop 
into  the  foundations  of  civilization.  Truth  and  ethics 
cannot  be  obtained  but  from  the  mouth  of  a  well- 
informed  teacher.  Richard  Whateley*  affirms  that 
nations  may  become  degraded,  but  that  no  nation 
unaided  by  a  superior  race  ever  succeeded  in  raising 


»  Vol.  V.  p.  129. 
*  Supra,  p.  22,  wq. 
»  Matt.  vii.  16. 


*  Origin  of  Civilization  ;  cf.  Win- 
sor,  vol.  i.  p.  380. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


187 


itself  out  of  barbarism.  "  Such  is  the  very  nature  of 
barbarism,"  says  Hornius,  **  that  unless  it  be  reformed 
by  foreigners  it  will  grow  worse  and  worse."  ^ 

The  fact  is  that  Christian  Europe  is  needed  to-day 
to  lift  up  from  degradation  the  Red  Skins  of  America 
as  well  as  the  Negroes  of  Africa,  and  that  a  similar 
fact  took  place  of  old  appears  from  the  ancient  tradi- 
tions of  our  aborigines.  "  All  the  American  culture- 
heroes  present  the  same  general  characteristics,"  says 
Bancroft.'^  "  They  are  all  described  as  white,  bearded 
men,  generally  clad  in  long  robes,  appearing  suddenly 
and  mysteriously  upon  the  scene  of  their  labors.  They 
at  once  set  about  improving  the  people  by  instructing 
them  in  useful  and  ornamental  arts,  giving  them  laws, 
exhorting  them  to  practise  brotherly  love  and  other 
Christian  virtues,  and  introducing  a  better  and  milder 
form  of  religion.  In  such  guise  or  on  such  mission 
did  Quetzalcoatl  appear  in  Cholula,  Votan  in  Chiapas, 
Wixepecocha  in  Oajaca,  Zamna  and  Cukulcan  wdth 
his  nineteen  disciples  in  Yucatan,  Gucumatz  in  Guate- 
mala, Viracocha  in  Peru,  Sume  and  Paye-Tome  in 
Brazil,  the  mysterious  apostle  mentioned  by  Rosales 
in  Chili,  and  Bochica  in  Columbia." 

Since  prehistoric  American  civilization  was  most 
probably  of  foreign  origin,  the  question  naturally  arises. 
From  what  parts  of  the  Old  World  was  it  imported,  to 
what  nations  of  the  Eastern  Continent  belonged  the 
first  American  culture-heroes  or,  what  is  more  likely, 
the  first  civilized  races  that  settled  on  our  western 
hemisphere  ? 

This  question  introduces  us  to  the  difficult  and  in- 
tricate researches  regarding  the  various  settlements  of 
foreign  peoples  on  American  soil  in  prehistoric  times. 


*  Lib.  iv.  cap.  i.  p.  250. 


Vol.  V.  p.  23. 


188       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I 


fl 


before  the  advent  of  the  heavenly  civilizer  and  Redeemer 
of  the  world,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Were  we  allowed 
to  base  our  conclusions  on  the  civil  and  religious  con- 
dition of  our  Indians  at  the  time  of,  and  after,  the 
Spanish  discovery,  we  would  confidently  make  the 
assertion  that  some  of  the  civilized  nations  of  Asia 
and  Christian  people  of  Europe  had  taken  possession 
of  the  central  and  occidental  portions  of  our  continent, 
driving  a  former  brutalized  race  towards  both  north- 
eastern and  southeastern  parts.  But  the  very  question 
is  to  find  the  source  of  a  more  ancient  culture,  of  the 
still  attested  glory  of  the  American  nations  that  had 
fallen  so  low  many  centuries  already  before  historic 
times. 

The  learned  have  expressed  all  kinds  of  opinions  on 
this  subject,  but  we  find  only  two  facts  that  may  safely 
guide  us  in  this  research, — namely,  the  striking  simi- 
larity which  exists  between  the  most  ancient  ruins  of 
Central  America  and  Peru  and  those  of  various  islands 
in  Polynesia  and  of  Asiatic  India ;  and  secondly,  the 
enduring  universality  and  clearness  of  certain  pre- 
Christian  traditions.^  We  have  no  space  here  to  give 
many  particulars  and  establish  the  stated  similarity ; 
suffice  it  to  remark  that  all  the  principal  characteristics 
of  ancient  American  monuments — their  cyclopean  ma- 
terial, their  plastering,  their  painting,  their  sculptures, 
their  hieroglyphics,  and  their  general  plan — correspond 
to  those  of  the  ruins  discovered  in  the  woods  of  India, 
in  Java,  and  in  Polynesia.  Thus  also,  and  in  particu- 
lar, "  near  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates  have  inscrip- 
tions been  found  dating  back  to  4000  b.c.  The  "-^re 
two  races,  the  Akkadi  and  the  Sumiri,  who  ruicu  .  ' 
these  parts,  building  great  cities  and  temples.  .  .  .  Some 

*  Jousset,  in  CongrSs  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  112  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  12,  seq. 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


189 


recent  discoveries  make  it  not  unlikely  that,  at  a  very 
early  stage  of  its  develoi)ment,  the  Akkad  civilization 
formed  the  basis  of  the  wonderful  civilization  of  Egypt ; 
and  there  are  traces  of  its  extension  eastward  into  the 
lands  of  the  Dravida  and  of  the  Cambojans  in  the  two 
Indian  peninsulas,  and  possibly  from  ancient  Camboja, 
across  the  ocean,  to  the  lands  of  the  Quiches,  the 
Mayas,  and  the  Quichuas  in  America.  .  .  .  From  the 
first  the  Akkadi  seem  to  have  built  upon  terraces,  both 
to  remove  their  edifices  above  the  low  alluvial  plain 
and  to  give  them  an  imposing  appearance.  The  great 
structures  of  Ur  rose  in  terraces ;  its  brick  walls  were 
decorated  with  blue  enamel,  polished  agates,  alabaster, 
marble  slabs,  mosaics,  copper  nails,  and  gold  plates. 
There  was  great  splendor  of  adornment.  Rafters  of 
palm  wood  supported  the  roofs."  ^ 

And  again,  it  is  pretty  well  agreed  that  humanity's 
oldest  traditions,  recorded  in  the  Bible,  have  been  pre- 
served better  in  America  than  they  have  been  among 
the  ancient  nations  of  the  Old  World,  if  we  except  the 
Jewish  p^ople.^  "  It  is  impossible,"  says  Viscount 
Kingsborough,  "  on  reading  what  Mexican  mythology 
records  of  the  war  in  Heaven  and  of  the  fall  of  Zon- 
temoque  and  the  other  rebellious  spirits,  of  the  crea- 
tion of  light  by  the  word  of  Tonacatecutli  and  of  the 
division  of  the  waters,  of  the  sin  of  Yztlacohuhqui 
and  his  blindness  and  nakedness,  of  the  temptation 
of  Suchiquecal  and  her  disobedience  in  gathering  roses 
from  a  tree,^  and  of  the  consequent  misery  and  disgrace 
of  herself  and  all  her  posterity,  not  to  recognize  scrip- 


'  Hutfion,  pp.  106,  108. 

2  Cf.  Ad.  Kiistner. 

•'  Lord  Kingsborough  assures  us 
that  the  Toltecs  had  paintings  of  a 
garden  with  a  single  tree  standing 
in  the  centre,  one  especially,  drawn 


on  coarse  paper  of  the  aloe,  round 
the  root  of  which  tree  is  entwined 
a  serpent  whose  head,  appearing 
above  the  foliage,  displays  the  fea- 
tures and  countenance  of  a  woman. 


:W' 


190       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

tural  analogies.  But  the  Mexican  tradition  of  the 
deluge  is  that  which  bears  the  most  unequivocal  marks 
of  having  been  derived  from  a  Hebrew  source."  ^ 

Let  the  narration  be  interrupted  a  moment  to  remark 
that  the  source  of  those  traditions  need  not  necessarily 
be,  and  is  not  likely,  a  Hebrew  source,  since  they  re- 
late facts  which  are  recorded  in  the  last  and  not  in  the 
first  book  of  Holy  Scripture ;  ^  but  it  is  rather  the  dis- 
torted information  which  originated  with  the  proximate 
progeny  of  Noe,  that  spread  all  over  the  earth  after 
the  confusion  of  their  language,  and  was  afterwards 
confirmed  by  Christian  apostles  and  immigrants. 

We  refer  our  readers  to  Document  I.,  a,  b,  c ;  and 
continue  the  relation  of  Kingsborough.  "  This  tradi- 
tion of  the  deluge  records,"  he  says,  "  that  a  few  persons 
escaped  in  the  Ahuehuete  or  ark  of  fir,  when  the  earth 
was  swallowed  up  by  the  deluge,  the  chief  of  whom  was 
named  Patecatle  or  Cipaquetona ;  that  he  invented  the 
art  of  making  wine ;  that  Xelua,  one  of  his  descend- 
ants, at  least  one  of  those  who  escaped  with  him  in 
the  ark,  was  present  at  the  building  of  a  high  tower, 
which  the  succeeding  generation  constructed  with  a 
view  of  escaping  from  the  deluge,  should  it  occur 
again ;  that  Tonacatecutli,  incensed  at  their  presump- 
tion, destroyed  the  tower  with  lightning,  confounded 
their  language,  and  dispersed  them ;  and  that  Xelua 
led  the  colony  to  the  New  World."  ^ 

According  to  the  native  Mexican  historian  Ixtlilxo- 
chitl,  the  Toltec  tradition  relates  that  after  the  con- 
fusion of  tongues  the  seven  families  who  spoke  the 
Toltec  language  set  out  for  the  New  World,  and  wan- 
dered one  hundred  and  four  years  over  large  extents 
of  land  and  water.      Finally  they  arrived  at  Huehue 


*  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  401. 

*  Apocalypse,  xli.  7. 


Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  401. 


CIVILIZATION   OF    ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


191 


Tlapallan  in  the  year  "  one  flint,"  five  hundred  and 
twenty  years  after  the  flood. 

These  and  similar  traditions  are  found  all  over  the 
American  continent,  among  people  of   all  grades  of 
barbarism  and  civilization,  to  such  an  extent  that  it 
seems  unlikely  that  they  should  have  originated  with 
the  unimportant,  dubious  Hebrew  immigrants,  whom 
but  few  learned  men  admit  to  have  reached  our  hemi- 
sphere.    Nor  were  they  first  taught  by  Christianity,  of 
which  they  form  but  secondary  tenets,  and  which  had 
not  illumined  some  of  the  aboriginal  tribes,  when  they 
gave  evidence  of  certain  knowledge  of  the  deluge  and 
of  the  confusion  of  tongues  at  the  tower  of  Babel  as 
recorded  in  Holy  Scripture.      Neither  could  we  admit 
that  these  teachings  of  oldest  history  might  have  been 
imported  by  later  immigrants  from  the  countries  where, 
in  most  ancient  times,  they  were  hardly  recognizable 
any  more.     We  are,  therefore,  inclined  to  believe  that 
these   aboriginal  traditions   are   simply  truthful,  and 
were  brought  into  America  by  the  nearest  descendants 
of  the  patriarch  Noe,  who  had  taken  their  course  in 
an  easterly  direction,  landing   in  America,  either  at 
Behring  Strait  or,  after  sailing  through  Polynesia,  on 
the  western  coast  of  Central  America  and  Peru,  as  is 
plainly  intimated  by  the  ancient  monuments  of  these 
countries.     Our  continent  appears,  consequently,  to  be 
indebted  to  eastern  Asia  for  the  glories  of  its  most  bril- 
liant period  ;  and,  in  spite  of  a  great  amount  of  literature, 
we  subscribe  to  the  conclusion  of  P.  Jousset :  ^ "  Primeval 
American  civilization  is  not  autochthonous,  nor  was  it 
developed  by  the  efforts  of  its  first  savage  nations  ;  but, 
advanced  as  it  was,  it  was  imported  from  eastern  Asia."  '^ 

*  Congrfis  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  117.      "on  ne  trouve  de  vestiges  d'une 

'"Nulla     part,"    JouFset     says     langue  4  flexion :  preuve  nouvelle 

(Congr^  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p.  Ill),     que  I'Europe  et  la  race  Aryenne 


i«     Mi 


}:l| 


, 


192       HIHTORY   OF   AMEttICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

We  do  not,  however,  intend  to  say  that  the  western 
portion  of  the  Okl  World  had  no  sliare  at  all  in 
America's  greatness  before  the  Christian  era. 

Not  a  few  writers  defend  the  opinion  that  the  Egyp- 
tians, who  sailed  around  Africa  and  far  away  into  the 
Indian  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  left  in  America  some 
architectural  and  linguistic  vestiges  of  their  presence.^ 

The  Tyrians  are  mentioned  as  having  landed  on  our 
continent,*^  and  the  Phoenicians  generally,  who  were  a 
nation  of  mariners  and  colonists  on  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea,  find  many  advocates  of  their  claim 
to  American  discoveries  and  settlements  ;  but  since  the 
writers  of  antiquity  hardly  distinguish  between  the 
mother  country  and  its  colony  of  Carthage,  we  shall 
not  try  to  discriminate  the  special  merits  of  either. 
It  is  known  that  the  Phoenicians  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  eastern  parts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  had 
regular  commercial  intercourse  with  the  miners  of  the 
Scilly  Islands,  with  the  Hibernians,  the  English,  and 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  coasts,  where  a  number 
of  ancient  Phoenician  coins  have  been  unearthed.^  Gaf- 
farel  *  affords  several  arguments  to  prove  that,  through 
the  medium  of  the  Phoenicians,  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans  had  a  knowledge  of  the  alga-  or  weed-sea, 
near  the  centre  of  the  Atlantic.  Horn  ^  expresses  the 
adventurous  opinion  that  the  Indian  races  of  Yucatan, 
Cuba,  Hayti,  Brazil,  and  Patagonia  are  of  Phoenician 
descent ;  and  he  assures  us  **  that  the  Phoenicians  landed 


n'ont  contribu^  en  aucune  fagon 
au  premier  peupleraent  et  k  la 
civilization  primordiale  de  l'Am6- 
rique." 

1  Rotteck.  Bd.  vii.  S.  36  ;  Congrfee 
Scient.,  viii.  sec.  pp.  112,  113 ; 
Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  40;  H.  H. 
Bancroft;  vol.  v.  p.  55,  »eq. ;  alii 
passim. 


'  Winsor,  vol,  i.  p.  40. 
'  Gaffarel,   t.   i.  p.   56 ;   Cronau, 
S.  99. 

*  T.  i.  p.  57. 

'  Lib.  i.  cap.  xi. 

•  Lib.  ii.  cap.  vi.  p.  84  ;  cap.  vii. 
p.  91. 


, 


CIVILIZATION    OF    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


193 


and  eatabliHhed  settlements  in  America  at  three  different 
epoeliH, — the  first  time,  when  they  sailed  in  company  /) 
with  AthiH,  the  son  of  Neptune ;  and  this  voyage  was 
followed  by  several  others,  for,  as  their  colony  of  Car- 
thage was  often  attacked  by  the  Tyrians  and  the 
Mauritanians,  some  of  the  colonists  went  on  board 
their  ships,  and,  sailing  past  Cadiz,  made  a  new  settle- 
ment on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The 
undertaking  proved  to  be  so  great  a  success  that  several 
Carthaginian  families  set  out  to  join  it.  Other  ancient 
writers  relate  the  particulars  in  a  somewhat  different 
manner.  The  Carthaginians,  they  say,  accidentally 
discovered  a  beautiful  island  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean, 
and  several  of  them  went  out  to  build  their  homes  on 
it,  until  the  Senate  decreed  that  such  would  be  hence- 
forth forbidden  under  pain  of  death. 

This  version  probably  coincides  with  the  second 
advent  of  the  Phoenicians,  according  to  Horn's  con- 
clusions from  ancient  authors,  as  Aristoteles,  Theo- 
pompus,  and  Diodorus  of  Sicily,  whose  reports  we 
have  noticed  above,^  and  here  deserve  our  attention 
again  because  they  afford  new  evidence  in  favor  of 
American  primeval  civilization.  Indeed,  the  Cartha- 
ginians did  not,  as  it  might  be  too  readily  imagined, 
meet  with  savage  nations  dwelling  in  caves,  but  with 
a  thriving  people  having  cities  of  a  million  inhabitants, 
and  prosperous  enough  to  have  both  summer  and 
winter  residences,  which  the  Phoenicians  declared  to 
be  simply  magnificent.*  ^ 

According  to  Horn  ^  and  several  more  authors,*  there 


vu. 


>  Supra,  pp.  145,  146,  149. 
»  Cf.  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  441  ;  Rafi- 
nesque,  p.  193 ;  Maltebrun,  t.  i.  p. 
•  73 ;  Herrera,  dec.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  i. 
p.  1 ;  Aa.  Paseim. 
I.— 13 


*  Lib.  ii.  cap.  viii.  p.  94. 

*  Arius  Montanus,  Genebrardus, 
Vatable,  Postel,  Crowe,  Fontaine, 
Carver,  Rfieda;  cf.  H.  H.  Ban- 
croft, vol.  V.  pp.  64,  65. 


— ...■_.     ,.I;HM 


194       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


M) 


was  a  third  and  last  epoch  of  Phoenician  voyages  to 
America  at  the  time  of  the  Jewish  king  Solomon,  in 
whose  employ  they  sailed  to  Hayti,  to  Peru,  or  perhaps 
to  Oregon,  in  order  to  supply  the  gold  that  was  needed 
for  the  temple  of  Jerusalem. 

Other  learned  men  think,  however,  that  the  famous 
Ophir,  teeming  with  gold  and  precious  stones,  had  been 
found  in  Sofala,  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  in  the  island 
Ceylon  or  in  some  part  of  the  East  Indies ;  ^  and  truly 
we  could  hardly  admit  Horn's  statement, — namely, 
that  the  Phoenicians  set  out  from  the  mother  country, 
navigating  the  whole  Mediterranean  Sea  and  farther 
westward  to  reach  Ophir,  when  we  simply  read  the 
scriptural  account,^ — *^  And  king  Solomon  made  a  fleet 
in  Asiongaber,  which  is  by  Ailath  on  the  shore  of  the 
Red  Sea,  in  the  land  of  Edom.  And  Hiram,  king  of 
Tyre  or  Phoenicia,  sent  his  servants  in  the  fleet,  sailors 
that  had  knowledge  of  the  sea,  with  the  servants  of 
Solomon.  And  they  came  to  Ophir,  and  they  brought 
from  thence  four  hundred  and  twenty  talents  of  gold." 
The  text  of  the  II.  Paralipomenon  ^  is  almost  identical 
with  the  foregoing, — "  Then  Solomon  went  to  Asion- 
gaber, and  to  Ailath  on  the  coast  of  the  Red  Sea, 
which  is  in  the  land  of  Edom.  And  Hiram  sent  him 
ships  by  the  hands  of  his  servants,  and  skilful  mari- 
ners ;  and  they  went  with  Solomon's  servants  to  Ophir." 
It  is  evident  that  the  ships  and  seamen  of  Tyre's  king 
went  to  Solomo  .'s  assistance  by  the  way  of  the  former 
canal  of  Suez,  which  connected  the  river  Nile  with 
the  Red  Sea ;  but  it  is  equally  clear  that,  had  the  fleet 
been  destined  for  a  westward  voyage,  the  preparations 
for  it  would  have  been  made  in  Phoenician  havens 
close  by  Jerusalem,  and  Hiram's  mariners  would  have 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  (55,  n.  136. 
»  III.  Kings,  ix.  26-28. 


Ch.  viii.  17,  18. 


CIVILIZATION    OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


195 


been  spared  the  trouble  of  a  circular  voyage,  as  useless 
as  tedious  and  expensive.  We  feel,  therefore,  further 
inclined  to  believe  that  Ophir  lay  towards  the  South 
of  Jerusalem,  or  in  some  district  of  the  Indian  Ocean. 
Some  one,  however,  might  suppose  that  Solomon's  gold 
was  fetched  to  him  from  America's  coast  over  the  largest 
expanse  of  water  on  the  globe. 

That  the  Phoenicians  at  some  time  landed  on  Ameri- 
can soil  could  not  well  be  denied  in  the  presence  of 
ancient  reports  ;  but,  as  Gravier  justly  observes,^  if  any 
vague  account  of  their  discoveries  was  kept,  it  reached 
us  disfigured  by  Hellenic  fanciful  imagination. 

Hornius  does  not,  however,  stop  at  the  information 
which  he  laboriously  culled  from  ancient  literature  ;  he 
tries  to  establish  the  similarity  of  several  very  peculiar 
customs  of  the  New- World  aborigines  anterior  to  the 
Scythian  invasion  with  those  of  the  ancient  Phoenicians 
and  with  other  analogies.  But  while  some  of  these 
American  customs,  as,  for  instance,  frequent  human 
sacrifices,  seem  to  be  of  a  relatively  recent  period,  there 
are  differences  between  the  two  peoples  that  would 
be  hard  to  conciliate.  Such  is  the  difference  of  their 
languages  and  of  the  hairy  or  bald  facial  skin  of 
either. 

Other  writers  have  supported  the  Phoenician  theory 
by  adducing  the  Dighton  Writing  Rock  found  in  the 
Taunton  River,  and  which  Gebelin  enthusiastically 
aflfirms  to  be  evidently  a  Phoenician  monument.  But 
the  sagacious  and  learned  von  Humboldt  cannot  find 
any  symmetrical  lines  on  it,  and  declares  it  to  be  an 
insignificant  sketch  similar  to  those  found  on  some 
Norwegian  rocks,  while  Lelewel  and  Rafn  have  of  late 
very  ingeniously  interpreted  it  as  a  Northman  monu- 


» P.  xiv. 


■♦  ] 


n 

r 

1        i 

i 

\ 

t'  t 


196       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ment  of  the  eleventh  century  of  our  era.^  In  fact,  this 
stone  of  Taunton  River  has  done  good  service  to  a 
dozen  conflicting  theories  and  may  never  afford  posi- 
tive evidences  in  favor  of  any,  just  as  the  inscribed 
stone  of  Grave  Creek  Mound,  the  inscription  of  which 
consists  of  tv/enty-two  characters  confessedly  alpha- 
betic. Ten  of  these  are  said  to  correspond,  more  or 
less  exactly,  to  the  Phoenician,  fifteen  to  the  Celtiberic, 
fourteen  to  the  Old  British,  Anglo  Saxon,  or  Bardic, 
five  to  the  Runic,  four  to  the  Etruscan,  six  to  the 
ancient  Gallic,  four  to  the  ancient  Greek,  and  seven 
to  the  old  Erse.^  It  is  useless  to  produce  any  more 
pretendedly  Phoenician  monuments  found  in  America ; 
they  all  are  equally  dubious.'* 

Bancroft  carefully  describes*  two  Hebrew  relics 
discovered  in  the  United  States,  but  the  beautiful 
preservation  of  the  one  and  the  material  of  the  other, 
consisting  of  raw-hide  and  parchment,  would  hardly 
allow  us  to  consider  them  as  being  of  pre-Christian 
origin.  A  similar  remark  ought  to  be  made  in  regard  to 
most  analogies  between  the  belief  of  the  Indian  tribes 
at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  and  the  religion  of 
the  Jewish  people  ;  for,  as  will  appear  in  the  sequel,  it  is 
almost  certain  that  the  Christian  religion  was  preached 
at  various  times  in  America  before  Columbus's  dis- 
covery ;  and,  while  Christianity  accepts  all  the  funda- 
mental tenets  of  Jewish  dogmas  and  morals,  and  highly 
respects  the  typical  liturgy  of  the  Old  Testament,  there 
is  no  reason  to  disbelieve  that  the  apparently  Judaic 
vestiges  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  of  early  Chris- 
tian missions.     The  alleged  similarities  actually  bear 

•  Cf.     Bancroft,     vol.    v.    p.  74,  '  Cf.    Solorzano,   lib.  i.   cap.  ix. 

n.    161;  Gravier,  troisidme  partie,  H  65,  p.   117;  Rotteck,  Bd.  vii.  S. 

ch.  iii.  ;  infra.  36  ;  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  40 ;  alios. 

»  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  75.  ♦  Vol.  v.  pp.  93,  94. 


I 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


197 


I,  it  is 
died 
dis- 
unda- 
lighly 
there 
udaic 
hiis- 
bear 


CI 


the  imprint  of  Christian  teaching  to  such  an  extent  as 
to  make  the  judicious  Waldeck  assert  that,  "  If  the  Tol- 
tecs  were  Jews,  they  must  have  visited  the  Old  World 
to  obtain  the  Christian  dogmas  apparent  in  their  cult." 
The  vestiges  of  former  Christianity  in  America,  besides 
a  few  other  very  weak  arguments,  have  led  the  enthusi- 
astic Lord  Kingsborough,  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  and 
several  more  to  believe  that  the  American  Bed  Skins 
are  descendants  of  Israel,  or,  at  least,  that  the  Lost 
Tribes  have  founded  important  settlements  in  our  hemi- 
sphere. Giordan,  Meyer,  Crawford,  Juarros,  Em.  de 
Moraez,  Ethan,  Smith,  Beatty,  besides  the  Mormons, 
are  of  that  same  opinion,  which,  however,  does  not  seem 
to  deserve  any  more  attention  to-day.^  Horn ''  discusses 
it,  but  does  not  admit  it.  • 

Bancroft'  has  a  valuable  foot-note,  from  which  we 
copy  here  :  "  In  opposition  to  the  Hebrew  theory,  we 
read  that  Wolff,  the  Jew  traveller,  found  no  Jewish 
traces  among  the  tribes  of  North  America. 

"  The  strong  trait  in  Hebrew  compound  words  of 
inserting  the  syllable  *  el'  or  a  single  letter  in  the 
names  of  children  derived  from  either  the  primary  or 
the  secondary  names  of  the  deity  does  not  prevail 
in  any  Indian  tribe  known  to  me.  Neither  are  cir- 
cumstances attending  their  birth  or  parentage,  which 
were  so  often  used  in  the  Hebrew  children's  namos, 
ever  mentioned  in  these  compounds.  Indian  children 
are  generally  named  from  some  atmospheric  phenome- 
non. There  are  no  traces  of  the  rites  of  circumcision, 
anointing,  sprinkling,  or  washing,  considered  as  conse- 
crated symbols.     Circumcision  was  reported  as  existing 


^  Cf.    Bancroft,   vol.   v.   pp.   77- 
102. 
"  De  Origin.  Amer.,  Prsef. 


'  Vol.  V.  p.  96,  referring  to  Fon- 
taine's "  How  the  World  was  peo- 
pled," p.  157. 


WBtaOB 


:  n 


i 


198       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

among  the  Sitkas  on  the  Missouri,  but  a  strict  exam- 
ination proved  it  to  be  a  mistake.^ 

"  The  Rev.  T.  Thorowgood  published  in  1650  a  work 
entitled  *  Jewes  in  America  or  Probabilities  that  the 
Americans  are  of  that  race.'  This  was  answered  in 
1652  by  Sir  Hamon  L'Estrange,  in  a  book  entitled 
'  Americans  no  Jewes  or  Improbabilities  that  the 
Americans  are  of  that  race.'  L'Estrange  believes 
that  America  was  peopled  long  before  the  dispersion  of 
the  Jews,  which  took  place  fifteen  hundred  years  after 
the  flood.  A  strong  mixture  of  Jewish  blood  would 
have  produced  distinct  customs,  etc.,  which  are  not  to 
be  found.  The  analogous  customs  and  rites  adduced 
by  Thorowgood,  L'Estrange  goes  on  to  say,  are  amply 
refuted  by  Acosta  and  other. writers.  The  occasional 
cannibalism  of  the  Jews  was  caused  by  famine,  but 
that  of  the  Americans  was  a  usual  practice.  The 
argument  that  the  Americans  are  Jews  because  they 
have  not  the  Gospel  is  worthy  only  of  ridicule,  when 
we  see  that  millions  of  other  infidels  are  in  the  same 
condition.  Of  the  Hebrew  theory,  Baldwin,  who  de- 
votes nearly  two  pages  to  it,  writes  :  *  This  wild  notion, 
called  a  theory,  scarcely  deserves  so  much  attention. 
It  is  a  lunatic  fancy,  possible  only  to  men  of  a  certain 
class,  which  in  our  time  does  not  multiply.'  ^ 

"  Tschudi  regards  tt  e  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
Jewish  theory  as  unsound.^  Acosta  notices  the  ob- 
jection, that  the  Jews  should  have  pieserved  their 
language,  customs,  and  records  in  America  as  well  as 
in  other  places.*  Macgregor  argues  that  the  Americans 
could  not  have  been  Jews,  for  the  latter  people  were 


'  Schoolcraft' fi  Archreologia,  vol. 
iii.  p.  61,  ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p. 
96,  n.,  as  also  the  next  following 
notes. 


'  Ancient  America,  p.  167. 

'  Peruvian  Antiq.,  p.  11. 

♦  Hist,  de  las  Indias,  pp.  79-80. 


CIVILIZATION    OF   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


199 


acquainted  with  the  use  of  iron  as  far  back  as  the  time 
of  Tubalcain  ;  they  also  used  milk  and  wheaten  bread, 
which  the  Americans  could  and  would  have  used  if 
they  had  once  known  of  them.^  Montanus  believes 
that  America  was  peopled  long  before  the  time  of  the 
dispersion  of  the  Jewish  tribes,  and  raises  objections  to 
nearly  every  point  that  has  been  adduced  in  favor  of  a 
Hebrew  origin.^  The  difference  of  physical  organi- 
zation is  alone  sufficient  to  set  aside  the  question  of 
Jewish  origin.  That  so  conservative  a  people  as  the 
Jews  should  have  lost  all  the  traditions,  customs,  etc., 
of  their  race  is  absurd.^  Rafinesque  advances  as  objec- 
tions to  the  Jew  theory  that  the  ten  Lost  Tribes  are  to 
be  found  scattered  over  Asia ;  that  the  Sabbath  would 
never  have  fallen  into  disuse  if  they  had  once  intro- 
duced it  into  America ;  that  the  Hebrews  knew  the  use 
of  iron,  had  plows,  and  employed  writing ;  that  cir- 
cumcision is  practised  only  in  one  or  two  localities  in 
America ;  that  the  sharp,  striking  Jewish  features  are 
not  found  in  Americans  ;  that  the  Americans  eat  hogs 
and  other  animals  forbidden  to  the  Jews ;  that  the 
American  war  customs,  such  as  scalping  and  torturing, 
cannibalism,  painting  the  bodies,  and  going  naked,  are 
not  Jewish  in  the  least ;  that  the  A  merican  languages 
are  not  like  Hebrew."  * 

For  these  and  similar  reasons,  which  the  reader  can 
easily  find  in  several  other  works,  we  are  of  the  opin- 
ion that  the  first  Jews  who  ever  set  foot  on  American 
soil  were  those  who,  in  spite  of  the  restrictions  of  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella,  secretly  went  on  board  the  ships 
which  Christopher  Columbus  and  his  contemporaries 
steered  to  the  New  World. 

'  Progress  of  America,  vol.  i.  p.  24.  *  Priest's   American  Antiquities, 

*  Nieuwe  Weereld,  p.  26,  seq.  pp.  76-79,  ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p. 

*  Democratic  Review,  vol.  xi.  p.  97,  n. 
617. 


I 


. 

.               > 

If 

1 
1 

,  1 

/ 

1 

Mf 


I'     ! 


200       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Why  should  not  the  Irish  race,  now  represented  in 
every  nook  and  corner  of  the  globe,  set  forth  the  claim 
that  their  modern  migratory  spirit  is  an  unadulterated 
inheritance  of  their  pre-Christian  ancestors,  and  that 
their  ancient  forefathers  who  came  over  to  Iberia  and 
Erin,  glorious  with  primordial  civilization,  as  is  vouched 
by  the  relics  of  their  admirable  round  towers,  simply 
continued  in  their  western  direction,  and  brought  to  our 
continent  the  light  that  illuminated  it  with  so  much 
brilliancy  ?  Denis  O'Donoghue,  with  patriotic  piety, 
writes  as  follows :  "  The  Celtic  inhabitants  of  ancient 
Erin,  in  pre-Christian  times  as  well  as  long  after  the 
advent  of  St.  Patrick,  held  firmly  and  constantly  a 
belief  in  the  existence,  in  one  shape  or  another,  of  a 
great  western  land,  and  they  had  very  probably  found 
similar  notions  prevailing  among  the  races  that  had 
colonized  Ireland  before  they  occupied  it.  The  Celts 
are  supposed  to  have  commenced  their  migration  from 
Spain  into  Ireland  about  a  thousand  years  before  the 
Christian  era.  They  had  been  borne  along  from  the 
far  East  by  the  main  stream  of  colonization,  which,  as 
historians  and  antiquaries  assure  us,  has  from  the 
earliest  ages  steadily  flowed  from  east  to  west,  until  they 
landed  on  the  shores  of  ancient  Erin.  This  western 
island  they  colonized  and  permanently  occupied ;  but 
beyond  it  still  lay  the  great  western  land  towards  the 
setting  sun,  the  object  of  their  ancestral  belief  and 
ambition.  Did  those  migratory  Celts,  whose  nomadic 
instincts  had  urged  them  from  Asia  to  Ireland,  make 
no  movement  farther  west  during  the  following  cen- 
turies? It  is  hard  to  think  that  such  masterful  ten- 
dencies as  actuated  the  race  had  spent  all  their  force 
within  the  Irish  shores,  or  that  those  adventurous  Celts, 
while  their  faith  in  the  existence  of  the  great  western 
land  probably  grew  more  vivid  as  they  advanced  in 


CIVILIZATION   OF   ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


201 


Is 


1,  as 
the 
they 
estern 
but 
the 
and 
madic 
make 
cen- 
1  ten- 
force 
Celts, 
estern 
ced  in 


their  migrations  towards  the  West,  made  no  attempts, 
put  forth  no  eiforts,  to  approach  or  reach  it  during  so 
many  ages.  It  is  very  probable  that  many  of  them 
still  nursed  yearnings  and  aspirations  to  seek  out  that 
mysterious  land,  and,  in  obedience  to  these,  made  ef- 
forts to  penetrate  and  traverse  the  wide  ocean  that  lay 
between  them  and  the  object  of  their  desires ;  and  we 
may  well  believe  that  such  daring  attempts  were  some- 
times crowned  with  success."  ^  Such  are  the  learned 
pleadings  in  behalf  of  a  possibility,  but  they  contain 
no  proof  of  historical  fact. 

The  claims  set  forth  by  a  few  theorists  in  behalf  of 
the  Greeks  aud  of  the  Romans  for  the  honors  of  ancient 
American  civilization  are  scarcely  founded  upon  any 
better  ground ;  and,  in  fact,  the  arguments  in  favor  of 
the  latter  relate  to  an  epoch  posterior  to  the  one  under 
consideration.  It  is,  namely,  said  that  Rufus,  Arch- 
bishop of  Cosenza,  made  a  present  to  the  Pope  of  a 
coin  of  the  reign  of  Emperor  Augustus  which  had 
been  found  in  American  mines ;  and  that  the  Domini- 
can father,  Joseph  de  Guerra,  received  from  an  Indian 
woman  another  coin  bearing  the  imprint  of  Emperor 
Trajan,  which  she  had  inherited  from  her  ancestors ;  ^ 
but  the  accounts  of  the  discoveries  of  these  Roman  and 
of  similar  Greek  relics  could  hardly  stand  the  test  of 
historical  criticism.  We  may  well,  furthermore,  sup- 
pose that  should  the  twilight  of  the  pagan  civilization 
of  Europe  have  illumined  the  supposed  barbarian 
tribes  of  America,  we  would  find  brilliant  reports  of 
the  glorious  feat  in  our  classic  authors,  who  were  never 
slow  in  recording  the  great  deeds  of  their  country. 
Yet  these  are  silent. 

The  Spanish  discoverers  have  found  descendants  of 

»  Brendaniana,  pp.  309,  310.  '  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  441,  n. 


202       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

African  settlers  in  America  ;  but  can  we  look  to  the 
dark  Lybian  races  for  teachers  of  the  bright  prehistoric 
nations  of  our  continent  ? 

We  noticed  before  that  the  models — if  not  copies — 
of  the  grand  prehistoric  monuments  of  America  are  to 
be  found  in  Polynesia  and  in  the  East  Indies.  What 
we  know  of  civilization  in  Polynesia  would  not  justify 
the  assumption  of  America's  former  civilization  origi- 
nating in  its  archipelagos.  Modern  researches  establish 
the  fact  that  not  only  in  Egypt  and  Persia  but  all  over 
India  the  level  of  literature,  science,  and  culture  gener- 
ally has  grown  lower  and  lower  with  the  lapse  of  time ; 
and,  therefore,  if  the  height  of  prehistoric  civilizatiork 
on  our  continent  must  be  measured  by  the  standard  of 
its  prehistoric  works  and  monuments,  we  are  compelled 
to  the  conclusion  that,  if  southern  Asia  is  the  source 
of  faded  American  glory,  its  first  colonies  must  have 
arrived  in  the  New  World  shortly  after  or  before  the 
biblical  deluge. 

Can  it  be  supposed  that  the  architects  and  builders 
of  ancient  America's  grand  and  admirable  ruins  were 
immigrants  from  Asia's  central  and  northern  countries  ? 
Indeed,  there  hardly  remains  any  doubt,  as  we  will  see 
farther  on,  that  the  Tartars  or  Scythians  were  among 
the  first  ancestors  of  our  modern  Indians ;  but  while  it 
is  well  established  that  no  savage  nation  ever  attempted 
to  make  far-distant  settlements,  we  cannot  base  an 
hypothesis  of  American  civilization  upon  the  data  of 
Tartar  or  Scythian  known  history. 

The  fact,  therefore,  of  a  civilization  that  long  cen- 
turies ago  flourished  and  worked  wonders  on  our  conti- 
nent is  an  insoluble  puzzle,  not  only  for  the  adepts  of 
the  theory  of  progress,  but  also  for  the  scientists  who 
refuse  to  admit  the  golden  age  of  humanity,  original 
revelation,  and  consequent  civilization  ;  and  it  has  led 


CIVILIZATION   OF    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


203 


many  serious  writers  to  gravely  discuss  the  question 
whether  it  was  not  Christianity  that  was  the  leading 
cause  of  the  architectural  and  other  wonders,  whose 
ruins  we  still  admire  on  American  soil.  These  ruins 
are  lasting  witnesses  of  high  culture  in  many  respects  ; 
and  when  we  consider  that  to-day  the  various  degrees 
of  savagery  and  of  civilization  all  over  the  earth  are 
in  proportion  to  the  knowledge  and  practice  of  the 
Christian  religion,  we  should  not  wonder  if  some  au- 
thors conclude  that  America  bears  evident  traces  of 
early  Christian  evangelization,  especially  when  we  take 
into  account  the  doctrines,  as  numerous  as  singular, 
that  are  common  among  Christians  and  prehistoric 
civilized  Americans.^ 


'  Infra. 


IK'i  < 


m 


W 


t 


' 


!    t 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE   APOSTLE  ST.    THOMAS   IN   AMERICA. 

To  open  an  interesting  chapter  with  a  poetical  state- 
ment, we  shall  relate  a  short  Mormon  story :  ^  The 
Lost  Tribes  of  Israel,  almost  immediately  upon  their 
arrival  in  America,  separated  into  two  distinct  nations. 
The  Nephites,  so  called  from  the  prophet  Nephi,  who 
had  conducted  them,  were  persecuted  on  account  of 
their  righteousness  by  the  others,  who  called  them- 
selves Lamanites ,  from  Laman,  their  chief,  a  wicked 
and  corrupt  man.  In  spite  of  the  numerous  blessings 
which  they  had  received,  the  Nephites  themselves  fell 
from  grace  and  were  terribly  punished  for  their  in- 
gratitude and  wickedness.  A  thick  darkness  covered 
the  whole  continent,  earthquakes  cast  mountains  into 
valleys,  many  towns  were  swallowed  up,  and  others 
destroyed  by  fire  from  heaven.  Thus  perished  the 
most  perverse  among  the  Nephites  and  the  Lamanites. 
Those  who  survived  these  judgments  were  informed,  by 
certain  celestial  and  terrestrial  phenomena,  of  the  birth 
and  death  of  Christ,  which  had  long  before  been  pre- 
dicted by  their  prophets,  and  they  even  received  a  visit 
from  Christ,  who,  before  his  ascension,  appeared  in  the 
midst  of  the  Nephites  in  the  northern  part  of  South 
America.  His  instructions,  the  foundation  of  the  New 
Law,  were  engraved  on  plates  of  gold,  and  some  of 
them  are  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  but  by 
far  the  greater  part  will  be  revealed  only  to  the  Saints 
at  a  future  time.     When  Christ  had  ended  his  mission 


204 


*  Cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  98,  seq. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN   AMEKICA. 


205 


state- 
The 

their 
ations. 
li,  who 
unt  of 

them- 
wicked 
essings 
^es  fell 


3n  pre- 
a  visit 
in  the 
South 
le  New 
lome  of 
1  but  by 
Saints 
lission 


¥■ 


to  the  Nephites  he  ascended  to  Heaven,  and  the  apostles 
designated  by  him  went  to  preach  his  gospel  throughout 
the  continent  of  America.  In  all  parts  the  Nephites 
and  the  Lamanites  were  converted  to  the  Lord,  and  for 
three  centuries  they  lived  a  godly  life.  But  towards 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era 
they  returned  to  their  evil  ways,  and  once  more  they 
were  smitten  by  the  arm  of  the  Almighty.  A  terrible 
war  broke  out  between  the  two  nations,  which  ended  in 
the  destruction  of  the  ungrateful  Nephites.  Driven  by 
their  enemies  towards  the  North  and  Northeast,  they 
were  defeated  in  a  final  battle  near  the  hill  of  Cumorah, 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  where  their  historical  tab- 
lets have  since  been  found  by  Joseph  Smith  ! 

On  the  occasion  of  this  tale  we  might  also  rehearse  a 
Christian  legend, — namely,  that  Our  Lord,  during  the 
forty  days  between  his  resurrection  and  his  ascension, 
walked  with  unequal  giant  strides  over  the  earth,  and 
that  wherever  he  set  down  his  foot  a  church  must  be 
built  in  the  sequel  of  time.  Should  this  pious  story 
be  truthful,  it  would  be  evident  that  Christ  strode  over 
our  hemisphere  in  many  directions. 

No  one  has  seriously  pretended  that  Christ,  during 
his  visible  mission  on  earth,  has  ever  visited  our  con- 
tinent; but  America  was  part  of  the  world,  over  which 
he  sent  his  apostles  to  teach  his  doctrine  of  salvation. 
The  question  of  his  apostles'  actual  preaching  in  Amer- 
ica has  been  taken  up  long  since  according  to  the  rules 
of  historical  criticism.  Nor  is  it  of  secondary  interest, 
as  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  only  subject 
of  discussion  capable  of  ruffling  the  harmonious  equa- 
nimity of  the  learned  members  of  the  Americanistic 
congresses  at  Copenhagen  and  Luxemburg.^ 

» Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  428,  n.  1. 


y 


m  I   .1 

Bit 

M 


;; 


1 


n 

'pi 


11, 


( 


206       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  first  man  plainly  to  assert  the  evangelization  of 
America  by  the  apostle  St.  Thomas  was  probably  the 
learned  and  famous  scientist  and  lapidary  Jaime  Ferrer 
de  Blanes,  who  wrote  from  Burgos  to  the  discoverer 
Columbus  on  the  5th  of  August,  a.d.  1495,  "  I,  Sefior, 
I  meditate  upon  this  great  mystery, — to  wit,  that  the 
divine  and  infallible  Providence  sent  the  grand  apostle 
Thomas  from  the  West  to  the  East  to  promulgate  in 
the  Indies  our  holy  Christian  law ;  and  you,  Sefior, 
he  despatched  by  the  opposite  way  from  the  East  to  the 
West ;  so  that,  according  to  the  divine  will,  you  have 
reached  the  uttermost  parts  of  Upper  India,  for  the 
purpose  of  letting  the  descendants  hear  what  the  an- 
cestors have  neglected  of  the  preaching  of  Thomas,  in 
order  that  the  word  may  be  fulfilled  :  *  Their  sound 
hath  gone  forth  into  all  the  earth  ;'  and  pretty  soon, 
with  the  divine  assistance,  you  shall  be  in  the  great 
gulf,  on  the  shores  of  which  the  glorious  Thomas 
has  left  his  saintly  body."  ^  De  Blanes,  however,  had 
the  East  Indies  in  view.  B.  de  las  Casas,  bishop  of 
Chiapa,  writes  that,  already  then,  it  was  thought  that 
the  apostle  St.  Thomas  had  left  certain  vestiges  in 
Portuguese  Brazil."^  Charlevoix^  says  that,  according 
to  Oviedo's  confident  assertion,  the  two  apostles  St. 
James  and  St.  Paul  have  preached  the  Gospel  in  the 
Antilles  or  Ancient  Hesperides. 

Following  is  a  note  from  Prescott :  *  "Piec  >ahita, 
the  historian  of  the  Muyscas,  is  satisfied  that  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, whose  travels  are  known  to  have  been  ex- 
tensive, paid  a  visit  to  Peru,  and  scattered  over  it  the 


^  Navarrete,  t.  ii.  p.  119 ;  Amer. 
Cath.  Quar.  Rev. ,  vol.  xvii.  p.  50 ; 
ad  Rom.  x.  18. 

'  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t.  66, 
Append.,  cap.  cxxiii.  p.  454. 


'  Histoire  de  I'lle  Espagnole,  t.  i. 
p.  90. 

*  Conquest  of  Pern,  vol.  i.  p.  109, 
n.  36. 


THE    APOHTLE   HT.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


207 


;ahita, 
Bar- 


seeds  of  religious  truth.'  The  Mexican  antiquaries 
consider  St.  Thomas  as  having  had  charge  of  the  mis- 
sion to  the  people  of  Anahuac.  These  two  apostles 
then  would  seem  to  have  divided  among  themselves 
the  New  World,  at  least  the  civilized  portions  of  it. 
Velasco,  a  writer  of  the  eighteenth  century,  has  little 
doubt  that  they  did  really  come."'* 

We  do  not  remember  having  read  in  Oviedo  any 
passage  containing  such  an  assertion,  but  we  have 
noticed  the  following :  ^  "  If  it  was  from  Castile  that, 
in  our  days,  the  knowledge  of  the  holy  Gospel  went 
over  to,  and  was  spread  in,  the  West  Indies,  it  is  not 
to  say  that  the  wild  nations  of  those  countries  did  not 
from  the  very  times  of  the  apostles  have  a  knowledge 
of  the  Christian  redemption  and  of  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  shedding  his  blood  for  mankind.  We  must 
rather  believe  that  the  Indians  of  those  countries  had 
forgotten  those  truths."  Sahagun,*  another  important 
witness  in  the  case,  states  that  the  famous  Mexican 
law-giver  Quetzal coatl  was  one  of  the  many  Yucatan 
prophets  who  at  various  times  renewed  the  teachings  of 
Chilain  Cambal,  whose  name  signifies,  in  the  Chinese 
language,  St.  Thomas. 

A.  Lapide  refers^  to  Thomas  Stapleton,  who  proves, 
he  says,  in  his  "  Three  Thomas"  that  St.  Thomas  the 
apostle  has  in  his  peregrinations  reached  the  uttermost 
limits  of  India,  preached  to  the  Chinese,  and  even 
sailed  to  the  New  World,  to  America. 

We  have  not  sufficient  space  for  the  names  of  all 
the  authors  who  advocated  the  thesis  of  St.  Thomas's 
mission  in  America.     Many  might  be  quoted,  besides 


*  Conqviista  de  Granada,  parte  i. 
lib.  i.  cap.  iii. 
»  Hist,  de  Quito,  t.  i.  p.  89. 
'  Fo.  ix.  lib.  ii.  cap.  vii. 


*  Ap.  de  Mier,  p.  iv. 
^  Vol.  xvi.  p.  035,  in  Joan,  cap. 
XX.  V.  24. 


>    .1 


I 


; 


if 

i!  I 


tir 


i 


1 


^1 


i''' 


!'■■ 


Ill 
II' 


ii 


I 


208       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Garcia,  Torquemada,  Siguenza,  and  other  Spanish 
writers/  besides  Kingsborough,  Gleeson,  De  Costa,^  and 
modern  authors  generally  ;  but  it  is  easily  observed  that 
they  all  establish  their  opinion  upon  identical  foun- 
dations,— to  wit,  upon  the  authority  of  ancient  and 
revered  writers,  who  may  have  had  a  knowledge  of 
America's  existence  and  of  its  religious  condition  from 
human  sources,  yet  especially  drew  their  conclusions 
from  the  statements  of  Holy  Writ ;  nnd,  again,  upon 
the  vestiges  and  traditions  of  the  New  World  that 
are  adduced  as  evidences  of  St,  Thomas's  mission  in 
our  hemisphere. 

The  first  of  the  authorities  quoted  is  that  of  St. 
Clement,  a  contemporary  of  the  apostle  St.  Thomas, 
from  whom  he  may  have  learned  the  existence  of  "  the 
other  world"  that  he  speaks  of  in  his  letter  to  the 
Corinthians.' 

Solorzano*  states,  in  spite  of  his  wishes,  that  there 
seem  to  be  vestiges  of  Gospel  preaching  in  the  New 
World,  and  adds  that  Tertullian,'*  after  having  asserted 
that  the  voice  of  the  apostles  and  the  doctrine  of  Christ 
had  been  heard  by  all  nations  of  the  earth,  especially 
enumerates  the  Parthians,  the  Medes,  the  Elamites,  the 
inhabitants  of  Mesopotamia,  the  Armenians,  the  Phry- 
gians, the  Cappa  locJans,  the  people  of  Pontus,  Asia 
Minor,  and  Pamphylia,  the  Egyptians,  the  Africans,  the 
Romans,  the  Jews,  the  Getuli,  the  Moors,  the  Spanish, 
the  Gauls,  the  Britons,  the  Sarmatians,  the  Dacians,  the 
Germains,  and  the  Scythians  ;  and  then  subjoins  that 
the  same  voice  and  doctrine  had  been  heard  by  the  in- 
habitants of  many  more  strange  countries  and  islands 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  270 ;  Saha- 
gun,  US.  i.  p.  xix. 

'  DipcLvery,  p.  15 ;  Kingsbor- 
ough, Mex  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  332. 


'  Sahfigun,  lib.  i.  p.  xviii. 

*  De  ludiaruni  Jure,   p.    185,  n. 
52,  53. 

*  Contra  Judieos,  cap.  vii. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN   AMEKICA. 


209 


St. 


unknown  to  us,  and  which,  he  says,  we  could  not  enu- 
merate, yet  iu  which  is  known  the  name  of  Christ,  who 
has  come  and  reigns,  before  whom  the  gates  of  all  cities 
have  been  opened  and  none  remained  closed,  before 
whom  all  iron  chains  have  been  broken  and  steel  locks 
have  been  unbarred.  "  Does  not  Tertullian,"  Holorzano 
says,  **  indicate,  as  it  were,  with  his  finger  the  distant  re- 
gions of  which  we  have  no  knowledge  ?" — of  America  ? 
Tertullian  also  applies  to  the  apostles  personally  the 
words,^  "  Their  sound  hath  gone  forth  into  all  the  earth, 
and  their  words  unto  the  ends  of  the  whole  world."  ^ 

St.  John  Chrysostom  and  Theophylactus  are  likeivise 
of  the  opinion  that  the  Gospel  was  preached  among  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  before  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem by  the  Roman  general  Titus.' 

Oviedo^  and  others  refer  to  the  learned  Pope  St. 
Gregory,  who  plainly  asserts  ^  that  the  mystery  of  our 
redemption  has  been  announced  in  every  part  of  the 
world.  The  two  great  continents  of  America  could 
not  well  be  excluded  from  the  meaning  of  such  an 
expression. 

These  ancient  Doctors  of  the  Chuich  relied  espe- 
cially, in  making  their  bold  assertions,  upon  the  text 
of  Holy  Scripture  and,  in  particular,  on  the  commission 
which  the  apostles  received  from  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
and  on  the  statements  of  the  apostles  themselves.  In- 
deed, *'  Jesus  coming  spoke  to  them,  saying :  All  power 
is  given  to  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Going  there- 
fore, teach  ye  all  nations  :  baptizing  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  " 
And,  according  to  St.  Mark :  ^  "  He  said  to  them  :  Go 


'  Psalui  xviii.  5 ;  ad  Roin.  x.  18. 
'  Ad  versus  Marcion,  lib.  iv.  cap. 


43. 

'  A.  Lai)ide,  t.  xviii.  p. 
Epist.  ad  Koin.  x.  17. 
I.— 14 


182,  in 


*  Fo.  ix.  lib.  ii.  cap.  vii. 

*  Moralia,  ad  cap.  xvi.,  Job. 

*  Mutt,  xxviii.  18,  19. 
'  Ch,  xvi.  15,  1(). 


m 


ni 


t 


f- 


I- 
il/:'' 


! 


'in 


i! 


■[:l 


'']\\ 


210       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ye  into  the  whole  world,  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature.  He  that  believeth  and  is  baptized,  shall  be 
saved ;  but  he  that  believeth  not,  shall  be  condemned." 
This  command  might  perhaps  be  understood  to  apply  to 
the  apostles  together  with  all  their  successors,  all  the 
more,  as  there  is  added  in  St.  Matthew :  ^  "  And  behold 
I  am  with  you,  even  to  the  consummation  of  the  world." 
But  it  is  more  in  harmony  with  our  idea  of  the  mercy 
of  God,  "  who  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth,"  ^  to  interpret  it 
as  personally  regarding  those  who  received  it,  and 
who  seem  to  have  thus  understood  it ;  for,  before  sepa- 
rating at  Jerusalem,  the  apostles  divided  the  world 
among  themselves,  and  went  forth  in  every  direction 
to  obey  their  Divine  Master. 

Collateral  texts  confirm  our  interpretation.  The  same 
commission  is  related  by  St.  Luke  as  follows : ^  "And  he 
said  unto  them  :  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behooved 
Christ  to  suffer,  and  to  rise  again  from  the  dead  the  third 
day  ;  and  that  penance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  his  name  unto  all  nations,  beginning  at 
Jerusalem.  And  you  are  witnesses  of  these  things." 
There  can  be  no  doubt  but  the  apostles  are  meant  per- 
sonally here,  as  they  only  had  personally  heard  and 
seen  "  these  things,"  and  should  now,  "  commencing  at 
Jerusalem,"  go  and  testify  to  them  before  all  nations. 
The  same  injunction  is  further  made  in  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  which  are  a  partial  history  of  its  fulfilment, 
in  such  terms  as  remove  the  least  shadow  of  a  doubt : 
"  But  he  said  to  them  :  You  shall  receive  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  coming  upon  you,  and  you  shall  be 
witnesses  unto  me  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and 
Samaria,  and  even  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth."  * 


1  Ch.  xxviii.  20. 
"  I.  Tim.  ii.  4. 


'  Ch.  xxiv.  46-48. 
*  Acts  i.  7,  8. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


211 


The  apostles  had  been  passive  witnesses  of  Christ's 
words  and  deeds,  and  now  should  be  active  witnesses  to 
the  same,  as  they  actually  became  in  Jerusalem,  in 
Judea,  in  Samaria,  and,  why  not  logically  add  ?  in  the 
most  distant  portions  of  the  world. 

That  they  were  faithful  servants  and  fulfilled  the 
Lord's  command  is  evidenced  by  their  own  testimony. 
St.  Mark  closes  his  gospel  with  the  words :  "  But  they 
[the  apostles]  going  forth,  preached  everywhere,  the 
Lord  working  withal,  and  confirming  the  word  with 
signs  that  followed."  ^  We  should  not  exaggerate  the 
meaning  of  the  word  "  everywhere ;"  but  neither  could 
we  grammatically  allow  it  to  cover  only  one-half  of  the 
earth,  or  even  the  Roman  empire  only. 

St.  Paul,  who,  according  to  known  history,  travelled 
as  much  as  any  other  apostle,  and  is  said  to  have 
preached  in  America,  testifies  in  several  places  that  he 
and  his  colleagues  evangelized  the  whole  world.  Writing 
to  the  Romans,^  he  tersely  argues  on  the  responsibility 
of  all  who  did  not  believe  in  the  teachings  of  Christ. 
He  acknowledges  that  such  as  did  not  hear  the  Gospel 
preached — that  is,  individuals — cannot  be  held  respon- 
sible or  as  guilty ;  but,  he  says,  where  are  they — 
namely,  the  nations — which  at  this  day,  in  all  the 
world,  can  allege  invincible  ignorance  as  an  excuse, 
since  the  words  of  authorized  preachers — that  is,  of 
the  apostles  and  of  their  co-laborers — have  resounded 
everywhere  ?  Here  are  his  ov/n  words  :  "  Whosoever 
shall  call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  shall  be  saved. 
How  then,  shall  they  call  on  him,  in  whom  they  have 
not  believed  ?  Or  how  shall  they  believe  him,  of  whom 
they  have  not  heard  ?  And  how  shall  they  hear,  with- 
out a  preacher?     And  how  shall  they  preach,  unless 


»  Ch.  xvi.  20. 


»  Ch.  X.  13-18. 


'"'''" 


212       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Ill 


t' 


,  I 


they  be  sent  ?  as  it  is  written  :  How  beautiful  are  the 
feet  of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  of  peace,  of  them 
that  bring  glad  tidings  of  good  things  !  But  all  do  not 
obey  the  gospel,  for  Isaias  saith  :  *  Lord,  who  hath  be- 
lieved our  report?'  Faith,  then,  cometh  by  hearing, 
and  hearing  by  the  word  of  Christ.  But  I  say  :  Have 
they  not  heard  ?  Yes,  verily  their  sound  hath  gone 
forth  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  unto  the  ends 
of  the  whole  world." 

St.  Paul  had  already  before  said  to  the  Romans  that 
the  Christian  faith  in  which  they  believed  "  was  spoken 
of  in  the  whole  world,"  ^  and,  consequently,  had  already 
then  been  preached  in  every  country  of  the  earth. 

Equally  strong,  if  not  even  more  conclusive,  are  the 
words  of  the  Apostle  to  the  Colossians :  ^  "  We  give 
thanks  to  God  and  the  Father  of  Our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  .  .  .  hearing  your  faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  .  .  . 
which  is  come  unto  you,  as  also  it  is  in  the  whole 
world ;  and  bringeth  forth  fruit,  and  groweth,  even  as 
it  doth  in  you."  And  farther  on,  in  the  same  chapter,^ 
he  adds  :  "  He  [Christ]  hath  reconciled  you,  ...  if  so 
ye  continue  in  the  faith,  .  .  .  which  you  have  heard, 
and  which  is  preached  in  all  the  creation  that  is  under 
heaven." 

The  reader  has  noticed  that  Holy  Scripture  has  made 
use  of  almost  every  possible  wording  to  make  us  believe 
that  the  Gospel,  at  the  very  time  of  the  apostles  of 
Christ,  had  been  preached  everywhere,  among  all 
nations,  to  every  creature  or  human  tribe,  even  to  the 
uttermost  part  of  the  earth,  unto  the  ends  of  the  whole 
world,  and  in  all  the  creation  that  is  under  heaven. 

An  honest  reader  would  feel  disappointed  if  he  should 
be  told  that  the  whole  selection  of  these  universal  ex- 


»  Ad  Rom.  i.  8. 
'  Ad  Col.  i.  3-6. 


'  Verses  21-23. 


THE   APOSTLE    ST.  THOMAS    IN   AMERICA. 


213 


e  the 
them 
0  not 
b  be- 
iring, 
Have 
gone 
3  ends 

IS  that 
poken 
Iready 
1. 

ire  the 

e  give 

Jesus 

Sj   .    .    " 

whole 

Bven  as 

lapter,^ 

if  so 

heard, 

under 

IS  made 
believe 
>stles  of 
ong  all 
n  to  the 
lie  whole 
ven. 

e  should 
irsal  ex- 


pressions, in  spite  of  well-known  historical  facts,  only 
designates  a  relatively  small  portion  of  the  earth,  or 
only  the  Roman  Empire ;  and  the  most  saintly  and 
learned  men  have,  at  all  times,  understood  them  in  their 
obvious,  grammatical  sense.  As  a  proof  of  this  we  will 
mention  only  one  learned  author,  who  was  upright 
enough,  although  he  had  assumed  to  defend  a  widely  dif- 
ferent thesis,  to  give  us  a  list  of  the  most  authoritative 
writers  that  stand  in  favor  of  our  persuasion.  Don  Juan 
de  Solorzano  Pereira,  an  important  Spanish  doctor 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  quotes  ^  as  against  his  thesis — 
that  the  Spaniards  had  first  introduced  Christianity  into 
America — the  names  of  St.  Hilary,  St.  Chrysostom, 
St.  Jerome,  St.  Thomas,  Euthymius,  Theophylac- 
tus,  Tostatus,  Gagnseius,  Jansenius,  Maldonatus,  and 
other  commentators  of  St.  Matthew's  twenty-fourth 
and  twenty-fifth  chapters ;  St.  Ambrose,  interpreting 
the  tenth  chapter  of  St.  Luke ;  Bede,  on  the  thirteenth 
chapter  of  St.  Mark ;  Adrian  Finseus,  in  his  work 
"  Flagelli ;"  '^  Pinstus,  commenting  the  second  chapter 
of  Daniel ;  Leo  Castreusis,  in  the  first  book  of  his 
"  Apologetics  ;"  Genebrardus,  in  the  second  book  of  his 
"  Chronography."  He  adds  that  the  opinion  of  the 
apostles'  personal  preaching  in  America  is  specially 
upheld  by  Fr.  Stephen  de  Salazar  in  the  third  chapter 
of  his  sixteenth  "  Discourse  on  the  Symbol  of  the 
Apostles ;"  as  also  by  Acosta,  in  his  "  History  of  the 
Indies ;"  ^  by  John  a  Ponte ;  *  by  Fr.  John  a  Torque- 
mada,  in  his  "  Indian  Monarchy ;"  ^  by  Malvenda,  in 
his  third  book  on  the  "  Antichrist ;"  **  and  by  John  del 
Cano,  commenting  Psalm  xviii. 


'  De  Indiarum  Jure,  lib.  i.  cap. 
xiv.  p.  177,  n.  2,  3. 
'  Lib.  ii.  cap.  xii. 
'  Lib.  V.  cap.  xxv. 


Utriusque  Monarch,  lib.  ii.  cap. 


u. 


'  Lib.  XV.  cap.  iv.,  vii.,  xlviii.,  et 
xlix. 
•  Cap.  ii.,  XXV.,  seq. 


!Ii!!''M 


:(■■ 


t 

\ 

1 

^' 

! 

^ 

214       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Solorzano,  however,  in  defence  of  his  false  theory, 
objects  to  the  grammatical  understanding  of  all  those 
scriptural  expressions,  and  alleges^  similar  phrases, 
having  a  quite  restricted  meaning ;  as,^  "  In  those  days 
there  went  out  a  decree  from  Caesar  Augustus,  that  the 
whole  world  should  be  enrolled."  The  parity,  however, 
is  more  apparent  than  real ;  for,  as  regards  the  quota- 
tion, the  authori^v  of  Caesar  Augustus,  restricted  within 
the  boundaries  ..  the  Roman  empire,  evidently  con- 
fines the  meaning  of  "  the  whole  world"  within  the 
same  limits  ;  while  the  context  of  any  of  the  scriptural 
passages,  adduced  as  records  of  the  apostles'  universal 
evangelization,  does  not  oppose  the  belief  that  the 
Church,  already  in  its  beginning,  truly  was,  as  it  is 
styled  by  the  first  Holy  Fathers,  Catholic  or  Universal. 
On  the  contrary,  the  obvious  sense  of  all  those  texts  is 
more  in  keeping  with  the  mercy  of  God,  with  the  gen- 
eral tenor  of  Holy  Scripture,  and  with  the  duties  of  the 
apostles,  expressed  by  St.  Paul,  when  he  says,^  "To 
the  Greeks  and  to  the  Barbarians,  to  the  wise  and  to 
the  unwise,  I  am  a  debtor." 

Solorzano  also  objects  the  text,  "  Now  there  were 
dwelling  at  Jerusalem  Jews,  devout  men  out  of  every 
nation  under  heaven."  *  But  while  it  does  not  appear 
how  these  words  should  weaken  our  opinion,  they 
might  well  be  brought  forth  as  an  argument  in  favor  of 
it,  because  there  is  evidently  question  here  of  the  Jew- 
ish colonies  "  among  all  nations  under  heaven,"  the 
"  devout  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem"  spoken  of  being 
"  Jews."  Should  it  be  proved,  as  it  seems  to  be  gener- 
ally admitted,  that  the  Israelites  had  established  small 
colonies,  not  only  within  the  various  parts  of  the  Roman 


*  De  Indiarum  Jure,  lib.  i.  cap. 
xiv.  ^  73,  p.  190. 
'  St.  Luke  ii.  1. 


»  Ad  Rom.  i.  14. 
*  Acts  ii.  5. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN    AMERICA. 


215 


empire  and  the  other  countries  mentioned  in  the  same 
chapter/  but,  as  they  have  now,  among  every  nation 
under  heaven,  we  might  readily  argue  that,  as  they  are 
scattered  yet  all  over  the  world,  to  bear  witness  to  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion,  so  they  had  been,  by  an 
especial  providence  of  God,  during  their  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  captivity,  sent  out  to  every  portion  of  the 
earth  to  be,  as  other  St.  Johns  the  Baptist,  path-finders 
and  harbingers  of  the  first  heralds  of  the  fulfilment  of 
their  own  typical  religion. 

There  is  no  human  record  to  show  that  the  possibil- 
ity, not  to  say  the  probability,  of  the  apostles'  preach- 
ing in  every  continent  of  the  world  ever  was  an  actual 
fact ;  but  is  not  the  Sacred  Book  the  most  reliable  of 
all  histories,  or  does  the  truth  of  the  inspired  word 
depend  on  confirmation  by  a  few  remnants  of  the  old 
writings  of  pugan  authors,  who  took  no  interest  in 
events  relating  to  a  new  religion  which  they  considered 
as  an  insignificant,  contemptible  sect  ?  The  silence  of 
secular  history  could,  at  best,  make  out  an  argument  ab 
ignorantia,  a  passive  reason  drawn  from  ignorance. 

It  is  proposing  a  weaker  argument  still  to  say  that 
the  apostles  could  not  evangelize  the  New  World  be- 
cause of  the  impossibility  of  communication  between  it 
and  the  Old  World.  Indeed,  it  is  well  known  that  long 
voyages  were  accomplished  at  the  time  of  our  Redeemer 
and  previously  to  it.  The  Americans  sailed  to  Europe 
about  that  time,^  and  we  see  the  apostles'  countrymen 
regularly  gathering  in  Jerusalem  from  every  part  of 
the  globe.  Would  it,  therefore,  be  an  unreasonable  in- 
duction to  assume  that  St.  James,  St.  Paul,  or  St.  Thomas 
found,  either  in  the  Phoenician  ports  or  in  those  of  the 
Red  Sea,  vessels  waiting  to  transport  them  to  the  Amer- 


^  Acts  ii.  9-11. 


Supra,  p.  167. 


r   ;»^""^^-"-' 


,5; 


1  ' 


I         IJ 


■ill 


216       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ican  shores  ?  The  relative  deficiency  of  the  history  of 
our  ancestors  renders  lis  altogether  too  proud  of  our 
boasted  modern  progress,  and  makes  us  imagine  that 
the  messengers  of  the  Almighty  could  not  sail  to  those 
Polynesian  islands  and  to  the  adjoining  continental 
shores,  to  which  must  have  navigated,  at  some  distant 
epoch,  the  savage  tribes  who  inhabit  them  to  this  day. 

Let  it,  however,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  be  granted 
that  human  means  of  transportation  to  America  from 
Palestine  or  European  coasts  were  unknown  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  apostle  St.  Thomas.  Would  it  logically 
follow  that  St.  Thomas  was  never  in  America,  that  the 
apostles  never  preached  in  every  country  of  the  world  ? 
Is  not  the  whole  establishment  of  Christianity  one  sin- 
gle great  miracle,  too  little  noticed  ?  Are  not  the  his- 
torically known  journeys  and  voyages  of  the  twelve 
fisherman  a  real  prodigy  ?  Solorzano  himself^  con- 
fesses his  belief  in  the  possibility  of  the  true  faith  being 
spread  by  the  apostles  over  all  the  regions  of  the  earth, 
how  distant  soever  and  unknown  ;  and  if,  he  says,  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel  was  to  be  made  in  a  miraculous 
manner,  as  civil  history  amply  testifies  it  was,  there  is 
no  reason  to  deny  that  the  apostles  of  Christ  may  have 
penetrated  into  every  country,  no  matter  how  distant 
and  how  little  known,  in  a  shorter  space  of  time 
than  that  in  which  the  prophet  Habacuc  was  trans- 
ported from  Judea  to  Babylon  and  back  again,^  or  the 
deacon  Philip  from  the  desert  to  Azotus.^  The  little, 
indeed,  that  we  positively  know  of  the  apostles'  distant 
peregrinations  is  proof  sufficient  that  "  the  Lord  worked 
withal." 

St.  Thomas,  in  particular,  travelled  all  through  Par- 
thia.  Media,  Persia,  Hircania,and  Bactria,  and  then  Vy^cnt 

*  De  Indiaruin  Jure,  lib.  i.  cap.         '  Daniel  xiv.  32-38. 
xiv.  II  67,  p.  188.  »  Acts  viii.  40. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


217 


Par- 
went 


on  farther  east  to  India  proper/  where  Greek-speaking 
Christian  congregations  still  exist  at  Socotera,  the  pLace 
where  the  missionary  Theophihis  was  preaching  at  the 
time  of  Emperor  Constantine,  where,  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, Cosmas  Indicopleustes,  Arabian  freighters  in  the 
ninth,  and  finally  the  Portuguese  in  the  year  1507,  met 
with  a  Christian  population.  According  to  the  traditions 
of  the  Syrian  Christians,  the  apostle  passed  by  Socotera 
and  landed  at  Cranganor,  where  the  first  conversions  of 
the  Indians  took  place.  He  established  Chrit^tian  com- 
munities all  over  the  coasts  of  Coromandel  and  Mala- 
bar, until  he  shed  his  blood  for  the  doctrine  he  was 
teaching  in  a  place  since  called  Beit  Tuma  or  House 
of  Thomas.  This  tradition  is  related  already  by  St. 
Gregory  of  Nazianz  and  by  a  merchant  of  Alexandria, 
who  found  Christians  also  in  Ceylon.^  Nicephorus^ 
and  generally  the  authors  above  related  by  Solorzano 
further  state  that  St.  Thomas  preached  among  the  Chi- 
nese and  the  easternmost  nations  of  India.  It  would, 
therefore,  be  no  ^  eat  wonder  if  he  had  followed  those 
people  on  their  eastward  route  to  Polynesia  and  to  our 
continent.* 

There  are,  indeed,  to  be  found  in  America  some  pre- 
historic vestiges  that  point  to  the  apostle  St.  Thomas's 
presence. 

It  is  not  time  yet  to  follow  the  traces  of  Christian 
doctrine  and  of  Christian  practice  which  the  discover- 
ers of  the  sixteenth  century  noticed  in  every  part  of 
our  hemisphere,  and  we  shall  now  only  refer  to  such 
particulars  as  bear  directly  upon  the  question  at  issue. 

The  most  ancient  traditions  of  the  Peruvians  tell  of 
a  white,  bearded  man  named  *'  Thonana  Arnava,"  and 


*  Breviar.  Rom.,  ad  Dec.  xxi. 
'  Peschel,  Entdeckungen,  S.  5. 
'  Lib.  ii.  cap.  iv. 


*  Solorzano,   De  Indiarum  Jure, 
lib.  i.  cap.  xiv.  p.  185,  n.  54. 


f 


218 


HISTOUY    OF    AMERICA    MKFORK    C'OLITMHUS. 


\IA 


!  A 


r> 


religiously  honored  in  Callao,  who  arrived  in  Peru  from 
a  southern  direction,  eiothed  with  a  long  violet  garment 
and  red  mantle.  He  taught  the  people  to  worship  Pa- 
chacamae,  the  Supreme  God  and  Creator,  instead  of  the 
sun  and  the  moon ;  he  healed  the  sick  and  restored 
sight  to  the  blind.  Everywhere,  at  his  approach,  the 
demons  took  to  flight.  With  the  chief  of  Peccari- 
tampu  he  left  his  notched  stick  to  remind  him  of  the 
Commandments.  After  he  had  cursed  the  city  of  Yam- 
querupa,  that  had  persecuted  him  and  was  afterwards 
engulfed  by  the  ocean,  he  was  made  a  prisoner  in  Cara- 
vaya  and  led  to  the  adjoining  hill,  to  the  top  of  which 
he  had  carried  a  cross.  Set  free  again  by  a  beautiful 
boy,  who  appeared  to  him  and  touched  his  bonds,  he 
escaped,  sailing,  together  with  the  young  man,  on  his 
mantle  spread  open  on  the  lake.  He  finally  arrived 
at  Copacabana  by  the  lake  Titicaca,  where  he  was 
put  to  death,  and  his  corpse  was  placed  on  a  canoe 
which,  destined  for  a  barren  island,  foundered  in  the 
waves.^ 

Horn  ^  timely  remarks  that  proper  names  generally 
undergo  some  slight  variations  in  passing  over  from 
one  language  to  another,  giving  as  instances  'OSvaaevi;, 
the  same  as  Ulysses,  and  Aiag,  Ajax  ;  wherefore,  we 
should  not  wonder  if  Thonapa  represents  Thoma-7ta7ta$ 
or  Father  Thomas.  The  surname  Arnava  is  not  unrea- 
sonably interpreted  from  the  Peruvian  Quichua  dialect, 
wherein  "  arma"  or  "  arna"  signifies  to  bathe  or  pour 
water,  because  it  is  related  that  the  ceremonies  of  bap- 
tism originated  with  St.  Thomas  in  Peru.''  The  author 
just  referred  to  observes  that  the  apostle's  name  seems 
to  be  perpetuated  still  among  the  South  American 
tribes,  since  in  the  year  1810  the  chief  of  the  Caraibs 


1  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  58-67. 
'  Lib.  iii.  cap.  xix.  p.  219. 


'  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  67. 


Tin;    AI'OSTLK   ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


219 


i'roin 
nieiit 
)Pa- 
)t'  the 
itored 
[\,  the 
ccari- 
)f  the 
Yam- 
wards 

Cara- 
which 
autiful 
ids,  lie 
on  liis 
irrived 
he  was 
canoe 

in  the 

nerally 
r  from 
]vaasvg, 
ore,  we 
•TtaTtag 
unrea- 
dialect, 
or  pour 
of  bap- 
author 
le  seems 
merican 
Caraibs 


on  the  Essequibo  River  was  known  as  Mahanarva, 
Tliomas  the  Baptist.^ 

In  Peru  the  ajmstle's  name  seems  to  have  been  kept, 
also,  in  a  more  original  form  tlian  that  of  Thona})a  ;  for, 
as  Sahagun  curiously  remarks,  the  Peruvians  gave  to 
their  missionaries,  after  the  Spanish  conquest,  the  name 
of  "  Paytumes"  or  "  Padres  Tomes." '' 

The  Chilians  likewise  told  of  a  bearded  and  shod 
man,  who  had  appeared  to  their  forefathers,  healing 
the  sick  and  procuring  them  desired  rain.^ 

It  is,  however,  especially  among  the  oldest  nations 
of  Brazil  that  the  memory  of  the  apostle  has  been 
religiously  kept.  They  have  preserved  the  tradition 
that  he  preached  to  them.* 

Lescarbot  relates  as  follows  :  ^  "  Emmanuel  Nobrega, 
Provincial  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  Brazil,  testifies 
that  on  the  bank  of  a  Brazilian  river  are  to  be  found 
the  footprints  of  a  holy  man  who,  to  escape  his  pagan 
pursuers  walked  across  the  river,  and  is  called  by  the 
natives  Zome,  who  seems  to  be  none  other  than  the 
apostle  St.  Thomas." " 

The  great  missionary  of  the  Brazilians,  John  de  Leri, 


'  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  (>7. 

'  P.  iv. 

»  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  50. 

*  Niereinberg,  Ilistoriae  Naturte, 
lib.  xiv.  cap.  cxvii ;  cf.  Bancroft, 
vol.  V.  p.  20,  n.  ()1.  Niereniberg 
writes:  "The  East  Indians  still 
show  a  path  followed  by  St.  Thomas 
or.  his  way  to  the  Peruvian  king- 
doms. The  memory  of  the  apos- 
tle's preaching  is  also  preserved  by 
the  Brazilians,  and  a  similar  tra- 
dition exists  among  other  savage 
American  tribes.  It  is  related,  in 
particular,  that  St.  Thomas  had 
gone  to  Paraguay  along  the  Iguazu 
River  ;  afterwards  to  Parana  on  the 


Uruguay,  on  whose  bank  a  spot  is 
noticed  where  he  sat  down  to  rest. 
According  to  ancient  reports,  it  is 
said  that  he  foretold  the  advent  of 
men  who  would  announce  to  their 
descendants  the  faith  of  the  true 
God.  This  tradition  proves  to  be  a 
great  consolation  and  encourage- 
ment for  the  preachers  of  our 
Holy  Religion,  who  suffer  nuich  in 
spreading  the  Church  among  those 
barbarous  nations." 

^  P.  722. 

*  A.  Lapide,  t.  xviii.  p.  182 ;  in 
Epist.  ad.  Rom.  x.  17  ;  cf.  Les  Petits 
Bolandistes,  by  Paul  Gueriii,  t.  xiv. 
p.  413. 


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220       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

explained  one  day  to  them  the  origin  of  the  world  and 
how  they  should  believe  in  its  Creator.  They  listened 
to  him  with  the  greiitest  attention  and  evident  signs  of 
astonishment.  But  when  he  had  finished  his  discourse 
one  of  their  old  men  arose  to  answer.  "  You  have  told 
us  wonderful  things,"  he  said,  "  that  have  recalled  to 
our  minds  what  we  have  often  heard  from  our  fore- 
fathers— namely,  that  very  long  ago  a  certain  Mair,  a 
bearded  and  clothed  stranger,  had  been  with  them  to 
reduce  them  under  the  dominion  of  the  God  whom  he 
announced,  and  he  spoke  to  them  as  you  do  to  us ;  but 
they  would  not  submit.  When  he  left  another  came, 
who,  for  a  punishment,  distributed  arms  to  them,  with 
which  they  have  ever  since  been  killing  one  another. 
Yet  neither  will  we  change  our  mode  of  living,  because, 
if  we  should,  all  our  neighbors  would  deride  us." 

Horn  writes^  that  St.  Thomas  preached  among  the 
Brazilians,  or,  at  least,  wiis  known  to  them ;  for,  as  it  ap- 
pears from  their  traditions,  they  still  remembered  the 
saintly  man  whom  they  called  the  "  Meyre  Human ;" 
and  for  two  reasons  he  believes  tnat  this  personage  was 
the  apostle  St.  Thomas ;  first,  because  of  the  name ;  for 
**  Meyre"  signifies  in  their  language  a  stranger  with 
beard  and  clothes,  and  Human  is  but  a  slight  transfor- 
mation of  the  apostle's  name ;  second,  because  the  par- 
ticulars related  of  him  in  Brazil  correspond  with  those 
remembered  of  their  apostle  by  the  Indians  of  the 
coast  of  Malabar.  Sahagun  "^  ''ssures  us  th^ti,  one  who 
will  read  the  chronicles  of  Brazil,  especially  those  writ- 
ten by  Padre  Manuel  de  Nobrega,  will  see  that  in  that 
country,  from  ancient  times  is  preserved,  besides  the 
names  of  Jesus  and  Mary,  the  one  of  St,  Thomas,  who 
has  preached  in  it. 


'  Lib.    iii.    cap.    xix. 
219. 


pp.    218,        *  Dissertation  of  Dr.  de  Mier,  p. 
iU. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


221 


." 


As  a  result  of  arduous  researches  Bastian  has  lately 
published  the  following  interesting  particulars :  ^  A 
white,  bearded  man,  Tzume  by  name,  came  from  the  East 
to  teach  agriculture  and  introduce  corn  into  Brazil, 
where  he  opened  roads  by  making  the  forest  trees  move 
back,  while  the  wild  animals  crouched  before  him  ;  and 
he  turned  into  boomerangs  the  missiles  of  the  Cablocos 
who  assailed  him.  After  that  he  departed  on  the  river, 
leaving  the  imprints  of  his  feet  on  the  neighboring 
rocks,  and  these  traces  of  Tzume  are  to  be  found  in  east- 
ern Brazil,  in  the  province  of  San  Paolo,  on  the  "  Pray  a 
de  Embark,"  between  Santos  and  San  Vincente,  and  on 
the  mountain-tops  of  Serra  do  Mar,  in  Espiritu  Santo 
and  Bahia,  near  Gorjahu,  where  Emanuel  Nobrega  haa 
contemplated  Lhem,  as  he  writes  in  a  letter  of  the  year 
1552.^ 

Let  us  remark,  in  passing  by,  that  while  the  Bra- 
zilian name  of  St.  Thomas,  Meyre  Hun)an,  is  already 
explained,  the  other,  Zom6  or  Tzume  bears  a  striking 
resemblance  to  the  apostle's  appellation  familiar  to  us. 

It  is  also  said  that  St.  Thomas  entered  Paraguay^ 
and  the  neighboring  states.  Sahagun  *  relates  that  the 
commissary  of  the  Franciscans,  who,  with  four  more 
religious,  had  been  sent  to  La  Plata,  wrote  on  the  1st 
of  May,  A.D.  1538,  from  Port  Don  Rodrigo  to  one  of 
the  members  of  the  Council  for  the  Indies  a  remarka- 
ble letter,  in  which  he  states  that  the  Christians  had 
been  received  like  angels  by  the  natives,  from  whom  he 
had  learned  that,  four  years  before,  a  prophet  called 
Eguiara  had  been  there  and  had  announced  to  them 
that  ere  long  Christians,  brothers  of  St.  Thomas,  would 
Cv')me  to  baptize  them,  and  that  they  would  do  them  no 


1  Bd.  ii.  S.  60,  879. 
*  Solorzano,   De  Indiarum  Jure, 
lib.  i.  cap.  xiv.  1[  69. 


'  Nieremberg,  lib.  xiv.  cap.  cxvii.  ; 
cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  2tj. 
*  P.  iii. 


a. 


m 


U  ( 


< 


I 


222       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

harm,  but,  on  the  contrary,  much  good.  The  writer 
had  further  seen  from  the  songs  which  the  prophet  had 
taught,  that  he  had  ordered  them  to  observe  the  Com- 
mandments and  many  other  teachings  of  the  Christians. 

This  report  is  hardly  more  surprising  than  the  ex- 
tract made  by  Gaffarel  ^  from  the  History  of  Paraguay 
by  Charlevoix,^  who  narrates  that  when,  in  the  year 
1609,  the  Fathers  Cataldino  and  Moceta  penetrated  the 
wilderness  of  America  to  convert  the  Guaranis,  the 
cacique,  Maracana,  and  some  other  head-men  of  the 
tribe  assured  them  that  long  ago,  according  to  their 
ancestral  traditions,  a  learned  man  named  Pay  Zuma 
or  Pay  Tuma  ha'  preached  in  their  country  the  faith 
of  Heaven  and  had  converted  many  of  them.  Yet  in 
leaving  he  had  foretold  them  that  they  and  their  de- 
scendants would  abandon  the  worship  of  the  true  God, 
whom  he  had  made  known  to  them,  but  that  after  many 
centuries  other  messengers  of  the  same  God  would  come 
with  a  cross  like  the  one  that  he  was  carrying,  and 
would  restore  among  their  descendants  the  religion 
which  he  had  taught.  Some  years  later,  when  the 
Fathers  Montoya  and  Mendoza  entered  the  district  of 
Taiati,  in  the  province  of  Santa  Cruz,  the  Indians,  see- 
ing them  come  with  crosses  in  their  hands,  received 
them  with  great  demonstrations  of  joy.  The  missiona- 
ries, manifesting  their  astonishment,  were  told  the  same 
story  which  had  been  heard  by  Cataldino  and  Moceta. 

These  natives  designated  their  ancient  apostle,  also, 
by  the  name  of  Pay  ii.bara  or  Celibate  Father.  Pay 
Zuma  seems,  however,  to  have  been  the  more  common 
appellation,  because,  in  all  these  regions,  the  first  Chris- 
tian missionaries  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  called 
Payzumas  by  the  aborigines.^ 


» p.  429. 

"  Vol.  i.  p.  312. 


'  Cf.  Horn,  lib.  iii.  cap.  xix.  p. 
218 ;  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  60. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN    AMERICA. 


223 


Traditions  similar  to  these  are  reported  in  a  few  more 
districts  of  South  America,  such  as  those  of  the  Tupi- 
nambas,  and  along  the  Uruguay  River,  where  is  still 
shown  a  spot  where  the  apostle  sat  down  to  rest.^  But 
it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  there  seems  to  be  no  re- 
membrance of  him  in  the  northern  half  of  our  conti- 
nent, although  Sahagun,  commented  by  Dr.  de  Mier,** 
assures  us  that  the  famous  Mexican  high-priest  and 
civilizer  Quetzalcoatl,  was  none  other  than  St.  Thomas ; 
for,  he  says,  "  Cohuatl"  means  not  serpent,  as  is  often 
said,  but  "twin," — i.e.,  the  name  of  the  apostle  who 
was  called  Ai^fftos,  or  "  twin," — an  interpretation  con- 
firmed by  the  fact  that  in  Mexico  there  was  no  serpent 
worship,  no  serpent  being  represented  on  any  altar. 
He  adds  that  a  man  learned  like  Siguenza  was  of  the 
same  opinion.^  Nay,  Sahagun  goes  farther,  and  makes 
the  confident  though  hazardous  assertion  that  we  must 
abandon  ourselves  to  the  blindest  pyrrhonism  if  we 
refuse  to  admit  that  "  a  white,  venerable  man,  with  long 
hair  and  beard,  and  walking  with  a  staff,  has  preached 
a  holy  law  and  the  fast  of  forty  days  all  over  America, 
and  erected  crosses  worshipped  by  the  Indians,  to 
whom  he  announced  that  other  men  of  his  own  religion 
would  come  from  the  East  to  instruct  and  rule  them. 
Siich  is  a  fact,"  he  says,  "  established  by  all  the  histo- 
ries written  by  Spaniards  as  well  as  by  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  Mexico  and  the  quipos  of  Peru ;"  and, 
he  adds,*  in  confirmation  of  his  broad  thesis :  "  Father 
Calancha,  born  in  the  city  of  La  Plata,  fills  the  whole 
of  the  second  book  of  his  Chronicle  of  St.  Augustine  of 
Peru  with  arguments  in  favor  of  the  position  that  the 
Gospel  was  preached  in  all  the  Indies  by  the  apostle 


*  Nieremberg,  lib.  xiv.  cap.  cxvii. ; 
ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  26,  n.  61. 
'  Vol.  i.  p.  xiv  or  291. 


»  Vol.  i.  p.  xix  or  296. 
*  Historia  General,  p.  viii. 


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l'(' 


1 1'  ^ 

It 

Lil^ 

224       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

St.  Thomas,  who  is  the  only  apostle  declared  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church  to  have  gone  to  barbarian  and 
unknown  nations.  In  that  work  the  reader  will  notice 
the  great  number  of  Spanish  and  of  foreign  authors 
who  have  upheld  the  theory,  such  as  Fr.  Alonzo  Ra- 
mos, in  his  *  History  of  Copacavana ;'  Ribadeneira,  in  his 
*  Flower  of  Saints'  and  *  Life  of  St.  Thomas,'  and  many 
others ;  he  will  notice  that,  while  over-zealous  mission- 
aries pounded  out  ancient  inscriptions  on  rocks  vener- 
ated by  the  Indians  as  precious  relics  or  souvenirs  of 
the  venerable  man  who  preached  them  a  holy  law,  St. 
Toribius,  archbishop  of  Lima,  gave  orders  to  cover  all 
such  places  with  chapels,  being  convinced  that  the  old 
traditions  were  deserving  of  Christian  respect.  The 
reader  will  notice  how  those  traditions  are  confirmed  by 
the  ancient  hymns  of  the  Peruvians  and  by  their  quipos 
or  knotted-string  records." 

Horn  also  testifies^  to  the  common  opinion  of  the 
learned  that  St.  Thomas  preached  in  America.  Many 
more  could  be  mentioned,  but  we  make  free  to  suppose 
that  the  amount  of  evidence  produced  may  be  sufficient 
to  convince  an  unprejudiced  reader  that  p'  bably  the 
Christian  religion  was  promulgated  in  all  the  principal 
parts  of  the  world  already  at  the  time  of  Christ's  apos- 
tles, America  not  being  excepted. 

Gaflfarel  ^  reaches  the  climax  of  German  hypercriti- 
cism  when  he,  after  admitting  the  fact  of  the  South 
American  tradition  in  behalf  of  the  preaching  of  St. 
Thomas  on  our  continent,  tries  to  explain  it  away  in 
the  following  fashion  :  "  Is  it  not  very  likely,"  he  asks, 
"  that  those  pious  legends  are  inventions  of  missiona- 
ries who  wanted  to  be  important  ?  We  feel  inclined  to 
believe,"  he  adds,  "  that  during  the  first  days  of  the  con- 


•  Lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p.  276. 


*  Histoire,  p.  429. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN   AMERICA. 


225 


quest  in  the  sixteenth  century,  some  Spanish  priest  has 
tried  to  evangelize  the  American  nations  and  has  partly- 
succeeded,  and  that  his  memory  has  lasted.  The  In- 
dians, though  unacquainted  with  chronology,  have  mis- 
taken years  for  centuries  and  the  facts  of  yesterday  for 
events  of  the  long  ago."  Does  Gaffarel  truly  believe  that 
the  Peruvians  and  the  Mexicans  had  no  chronological 
records  ;  that  the  Indians,  credited  with  no  little  amount 
of  intelligence,  solemnly  declared  to  be  ancestral  tradi- 
tion of  the  mystic  past  that  which  they  themselves  had 
heard  for  the  first  time  from  a  stranger  trying  to  sub- 
vert all  their  ancient  belief?  Well-known  history  tells 
us  that  in  no  country  of  America  has  there  been  the 
space  of  a  lifetime  between  the  first  Spanish  priests'  ar- 
rival and  the  presence  of  those  who  first  recorded  the 
venerable  legends.  In  fact,  it  is  historically  certain  that 
during  the  sixteenth  century  and  ever  since  Christian 
missionaries  have  immediately  succeeded  one  another  in 
every  part  of  America,  in  such  a  manner  that  Gaffarel's 
explanation  cannot  be  admitted  without  impeachment  of 
the  first  missionaries'  veracity.  And  does  he  believe 
that  the  first  Spanish  priests,  who  sought  and  found  in 
Brazil  and  Paraguay  a  martyr's — that  is,  a  truthful  wit- 
ness's— death,  went  out  there  to  convince  the  hostile 
barbarians  of  fabricated  aboriginal  traditions  of  their 
own  ?  Does  he  believe  that  the  hundreds  of  missionaries 
in  every  portion  of  South  America  have  conspired  to  set 
forth  as  ancient  traditions  of  the  natives  the  actions 
and  teachings  of  their  companions,  not  one  being  intel- 
ligent enough  to  discover,  and  honest  enough  to  expose 
the  pious  fraud  ?  To  admit  all  this  the  French  savant 
needs  to  be  more  credulous  than  critical. 

Solorzano,  whose  task  it  was  to  prove  that  the 
Spaniards  had  been  the  first  apostles  of  America,  and, 
therefore,  had  another  title  of  dominion, — a  thesis  false 

I.— 15 


I 


'! 
i 


226       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

from  one  end  to  the  other, — appeals  to  the  authority  of 
Herrera/  who  is  of  the  opinion,  in  that  passage,  that 
not  one  of  the  apostles  of  Christ  ever  set  his  foot  on 
American  soil ;  and  to  Davalos,^  who  states  that  Rami- 
rez, bishop  of  La  Plata  in  Peru,  had  inquired  into  the 
particulars  of  the  cross  of  Carabuco  and  other  legends, 
and  had  found  them  to  be  unreliable.  He  is  obliged,  for 
the  sake  of  his  cause,  to  discard  the  historic  bearing  of 
Indian  traditions  generally.^  Yet,  unable  to  deny  all 
credibility  of  the  curious  ancient  reports,  he  finally 
takes  up  courage  to  conclude  that  they  who  first  taught 
the  Christian  religion  in  America  were  the  very  devils 
if  not  Spaniards  ;  *  and,  at  the  acknowledged  loss  of  his 
principal  proposition,  he  consoles  himself  with  the  erro- 
neous idea  that  the  American  aborigines  had  forgotten 
every  Christian  notion  at  the  time  of  his  dear  coun- 
trymen's appearance  among  them.°  The  contrary, 
however,  is  evident,  as  we  shall  see  later  on ;  and  we 
would  hardly  mistake  in  saying  that  the  greater  half 
of  Christian  doctrines  and  practices  were  kept  alive 
among  the  more  civilized  nations  of  our  continent  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  tracks  of  Christian  messengers  in  Central  Amer- 
ica looked  actually  so  new  and  fresh  at  the  time  that, 
considering  the  general  laws  of  civil  and  religious  prog- 
ress and  retrogression-,  we  could  hardly  accept  the  the- 
ories of  those  who,  like  Horn,"  contend  that  St.  Thomas 
was  only  indirectly  known  in  America, — namely,  that 
the  lasting  memory  of  the  Apostle  had  been  imported 
by  the  Tartars  or  Scythians,  who  had,  according  to  high 
probabilities,  peopled  the  greater  portion  of  the  Ameri- 
can territory. 


'  Dec.  V.  lib.  iii.  cap.  \\.  in  fine. 
*  Misc.  Austr.  Colloq.,  fo.  164,  acq. 
»  De  Indiarum  Jure,  p.  192,  H  92. 


*  Ibid.,  p.  193,  If  94, 
"Ibid.,  p.  193,1195. 
^  Lib.  iii.  cap.  xix.  p.  219. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS   IN   AMERICA. 


227 


St.  Thomas  has,  indeed,  most  likely,  preached  to  the 
Scythians  in  Asia ;  but  it  is  not,  according  to  ordinary 
human  events,  probable  that  their  children  migrating 
far  away  would  have  preserved,  with  relative  purity, 
ennobling  doctrines  of  a  mother  country  which  soon 
fell  back  into  abject  barbarism.  Moreover,  we  shall 
notice  farther  on  that  the  Tartar  migrations  seem  to 
be  rather  pre-  than  post-Christian  ;  and,  if  the  remem- 
brance of  St.  Thomas  had  been  imported  only,  the  ves- 
tiges of  the  apostle's  departing  feet  could  not  have  been 
impressed  upon  the  rocks  of  the  Brazilian  Andes.  This 
same  reasoning,  we  think,  holds  out  against  the  few 
who  suppose  that  the  name  of,  and  the  veneration  for, 
the  Brazilian  "  Meyre  Human"  may  have  been  intro- 
duced by  the  migrating  disciples  of  "  Mar  Tomas," 
who,  about  the  year  600,  restored  in  the  East  Indies 
the  Christian  religion,  then  much  neglected  there,  and 
of  whom  mention  is  made  by  Luis  de  Guzman  in 
his  "  Indian  Expeditions,"  by  de  Bairos  and  other 
writers. 

Sahagun,  as  we  noticed  before,^  and  a  few  more 
authors  have  fallen  into  another  excess  by  identify- 
ing the  apostle  St.  Thomas  with  the  Mexican  Quetzal- 
coatl,  who,  let  it  be  remarked  at  once,  has  all  the  appear- 
ances of  belonging  to  a  later  period.  Bancroft  "^  makes 
a  statement  which,  if  correct,  ought  to  settle  this  ques- 
tion to  the  satisfaction  of  the  learned  dissidents,  and  to 
reconcile  Sahagun  with  himself.  He  says,  "  During 
the  Olmec  period — that  is,  the  earliest  period  of  Nahua 
power — the  great  Quetzalcoatl  appeared.  His  teach- 
ings, according  to  the  traditions,  had  much  in  common 
with  those  of  Christ  in  the  Old  World,  and  most  of  the 
Spanish  writers  firmly  believed  him  to  be  identical  with 


Supra,  p.  223. 


»  Vol.  V.  pp.  200-202. 


ii 


ij; 


;.M 


ft 


li,: 


'     If' 


228       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

one  of  the  Christian  apostles,  probably  St.  Thomas.* 
We  shall  find  very  similar  traditions  of  another  Quetzal- 
coatl,  who  appeared  much  later,  during  the  Toltec  period. 
...  As  we  shall  see,"  he  says,  "  the  evidence  is  tolerably 
conclusive  that  the  two  are  not  the  same  ;  yet  it  is  more 
than  likely  that  the  traditions  respecting  them  have  been 
considerably  mixed  both  in  native  and  in  European 
hands." 

No  better  arguments  to  prove  the  personal  difference 
between  the  apostle  St.  Thomas  and  the  later  famous 
Mexican  Quetzalcoatl  could  possibly  be  offered  than 
those  held  out  by  Sahagun  himself,  commented  by  Dr. 
de  Mier.'^  Quetzalcoatl,  he  very  correctly  says,  estab- 
lished in  New  Spain  monachal  institutions,  where 
were  taken  the  three  vows  of  poverty,  obedience,  and 
chastity,  whose  inmates  went  around  begging  the  neces- 
saries of  life,  clad  in  white  tunics,  with  their  arras 
crossed  on  their  breasts  and  their  heads  humbly  bowed 
down.  The  first  institution  of  monk^!,  at  least  of  this 
kind,  is  not  anterior  to  the  fourth  centurv.  The 
brilliant  clothing  of  Quetzalcoatl  was  that  of  Oriental 
bishops,  never  worn  by  the  apostles  of  Christ,  and  the 
papas  of  New  Spain,  whom  we  might  call  vestiges  of 
him,  were  vested,  like  our  bishops,  even  with  the  mitre, 
which  consisted  of  most  exquisite  feather  work,  while 
the  priests  in  all  religious  functions  made  use  of  rochets 
or  surplices,^ — all  things  unknown  to  the  apostles.  Some 
authors  pretend  that  the  crosses  found  in  America  date 
from  St.  Thomas  ;  but  they  could  have  beon  given  only 
by  a  later  Quetzalcoatl,  since  the  cross  became  an  object 


*  Veytia,  Hist.  Antig.,  lib.  i.  cap. 
xix  ;  Dr.  de  Mier,  ap.  Sahagun,  lib. 
iii.,  Suplem.  ;  Bustamente ;  Dr.  Si- 
guenza,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  61,  n.  5 ;  vol.  iii. 
p.  367  and  n.  22. 


'  Historia  General,  vol.  i.  p.  xx 
or  297. 

'  He  refers  to  Torquemada,  t.  ii. 
lib.  ix.  cap.  xxviii. 


THE   APOSTLE   ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


229 


of  glory  and  veneration,  publicly  at  least,  no  sooner 
than  at  Emperor  Constantine's  time.  If  the  vestiges 
of  Christianity  found  in  Central  America  date,  as  is 
generally  adn  itted,  from  Quetzalcoatl,  it  is  evident 
that  this  missionary  was  a  personage  distinct  from 
the  apostle  St.  Thomas,  because  of  the  following  fur- 
ther reasons : 

The  bishops  of  ancient  Anahuac  were,  it  is  true, 
elected  in  Oaxaca  by  popular  vote,  as  were  the  first 
bishops  of  the  Church  ;  but  they  were  also  consecrated 
with  holy  oil,  as  was  the  emperor  of  Mexico,  whilst  at 
the  apostles'  time  the  Order  was  conferred  only  by  tlie 
imposition  of  hands.  The  constant  psalmody  that 
resounded  night  and  day  in  the  Mexican  monasteries, 
and  the  offices  of  archdeacons,  chanters,  treasurers,  and 
school-directors,  that  were  all  found  in  the  teocallis 
of  New  Spain,  are  no  apostolic  institutions.  The  first 
bishops  of  the  Church  were  called  elders,  but  those  of 
Mexico  bore  the  title  of  bishops  of  later  times  :  that  of 
IlaTtdg,  Pope,  Father, — a  name  evidently  imported,  as 
it  has  in  the  Mexican  tongue  no  meaning  at  all.  The 
explanation  of  this  name,  of  the  facts  just  mentioned, 
and  of  many  more  of  the  same  nature,  is  obvious  if 
Quetzalcoatl  had  been  an  abbot  or  bishop  of  a  later 
period ;  but  it  seems  impossible  in  the  supposition 
that  St.  Thomas  and  the  famous  Central  American 
civilizer  were  one  and  the  same  person.  Sahagun,  who 
had  no  idea  of  the  Irish  abbot  St.  Brendan,  finally 
concludes  that  the  remains  of  Christian  doctrine  and 
cult,  found  in  America  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  had  their  foundation  in  the  teachings, 
not  of  the  apostle  St.  Thomas,  but  of  some  other 
bishop  of  the  Oriental  or  Asiatic  Church ;  perhaps, 
he  says,  of  the  homonymous  St.  Thomas  who  worked 
so  many  prodigies  in  East  India  during  the  fifth  and 


f  f 

1 

'''    1 

1 

ii 

i       ; 

*    V 

Ii 

y. 

230       HIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

sixth  centuries,  and  is  so  highly  celebrated  in  the  Syriac 
liturgy.^ 

Veytia  ^  is  of  the  opinion  that  two  great  apostles 
preached  in  America :  the  former  twelve  years,  he 
says,  after  the  death  of  Christ,  the  other  during  the 
fifth  or  the  sixth  century  of  the  Christian  era.  It  is, 
indeed,  almost  historically  certain  that  Quetzalcoatl 
represents  two  very  distinct  Christian  teachers  and 
civilizers  of  the  New  World. 

We  could  not  reasonably  deny  that  some  of  the  apos- 
tles of  Christ,  apparently  Ht.  Thomac,  have  preached  in 
our  continent.  The  highly  probable  inductions  from 
Holy  Scripture  must  needs  influence  the  opinion  of 
Christian  students,  as  they  did  the  persuasion  of  several 
ancient  Fathers  of  the  Church.  Nor  can  any  serious 
historian  afford  to  simply  overlook  the  old  American 
traditions,  so  singularly  consistent  in  so  many  different 
parts  of  our  extensive  hemisphere.  St.  Thomas  and 
the  disciples,  whom  he  ordained  to  assist  and  to  succeed 
him,  as  did  all  the  other  apostles  of  Christ,  had  not  the 
lasting  success  of  St.  Peter  in  Kome ;  but  other  mis- 
sionaries followed  him  in  early  Christian  centuries^ 
to  renew  his  work  and  to  teach  the  pure  doctrines, 
morals,  and  worship,  of  which  the  Spaniards  have  met 
so  many  evident  vestiges  at  the  time  of  their  discovery 
and  conquest. 

The  first  epoch  of  America's  evangelization  belongs 
most  probably  to  the  era  of  its  primordial  and  unsur- 
passed glory,  since  we  find  in  one  of  its  most  magnifi- 
cent ruins,  in  the  Temple  of  the  Cross  of  Palenque, 
artistic  relics  which  many  learned  antiquarians  have 
considered  as  indubitable  tokens  of  Christian  worship. 

Historical  severity  prevents  us  from  proposing  our 


*  Historia    General,    vol.    i.    p. 
xxii. 


*  Sahagun,    Memoir   of    Dr.    d© 
Mier,  p.  xix. 


THE    APOSTLE    ST.  THOMAS    IN    AMERICA. 


231 


de 


argument  in  a  more  convincing  form ;  but  we  trust 
that  tiie  simple  exposition  of  ancient  traditions  and 
facts  entitles  us  to  the  conclusion  that  the  grandeur  of 
prehistoric  America  was  owing  to  both  primeval  divine 
revelation  and  to  its  completion  in  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation, the  two  being  actually  but  one. 

Divine  teaching  was  the  source  of  ancient  America's 
glory ;  its  neglect,  th'  cause  of  the  degradation  of  our 
modern  Indians.  To  ^,/ove  this  latter  assertion  we 
shall  endeavor  to  give  a  brief  description  of  the  Ameri- 
can people  as  the  Spaniards  and  other  European  nations 
first  found  them  to  be :  sunken,  in  many  respects,  to 
a  level  below  that  of  the  Red  Skins  of  these  United 
States,  in  spite  of  the  commixture,  in  some  districts,  of 
social  features  pertaining  to  a  kind  of  civilization,  whose 
semi-historical  traditions  allow  us  a  glance  into  the 
condition  of  nations  that  had  perished  and  disappeared 
already. 

Before  proceeding  farther,  we  wish  to  state,  however, 
that  we  do  not  consider  every  American  nation  of  the 
fifteenth  century  as  having  lost  the  last  tenet  of  religious 
doctrine  and  morals,  for  we  shall  fortunately  have  many 
occasions  to  notice  the  reverse.  Yet,  so  deeply  was  prim- 
itive revelation  obscured  in  the  minds  of  our  aborigines 
generally,  that  Daniel  G.  Brinton  feared  not  to  assume 
to  prove  a  sweeping  preconceived  theory,  according  to 
which  the  very  idea  of  God  and  of  religion  worth  the 
name  had  disappeared  from  every  nook  and  corner  of 
the  Western  Continent.  He  declares,  while  depriving 
American  mythology  of  all  historical  value,  that  the 
myths  kept  fresh  by  rehearsal  were  constantly  nour- 
ished by  the  manifestations  of  Nature,  "  which  gave 
them  birth."  And  in  the  treatment  of  his  subject  he 
considers  the  whole  aboriginal  people  of  America  as  a 
unit.     Winsor  tersely  and  correctly  observes  that "  this 


I 


f 


I 


.!    I 


II 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


unity  of  the  American  races  is  far  from  the  opinion  of 
other  ethonologists." 

The  same  judicious  author  further  remarks  that 
Brinton  enforces  his  view  of  the  American  hero-gods, 
as  if  these  w  o  a  spontaneous  production  of  the  mind 
and  not  the  i  niniscence  of  historic  events,  as  well  as 
other  views  of  his,  with  a  degree  of  confidence  that  does 
not  help  him  to  convince  the  cautious  reader  ;  as  when 
he  speaks  of  the  opinions  of  those  who  disagree  with 
him,  "  as  having  served  long  enough  as  the  last  refuge 
of  ignorance." 

Brinton  allows  himself  other  disparaging  assertions, 
in  the  defence  of  his  solitary  system,  when  he  says  that 
"  he  does  not  know  of  a  single  instance  on  this  con- 
tinent of  a  thorough  and  intelligent  study  of  a  native 
religion  made  by  a  Protestant  missionary ;"  and  again 
when  he  masses  the  evidence  to  show,  as  he  thinks, 
that  "  on  Catholic  missions  has  followed  the  debase- 
ment, and  on  Protestant  missions  the  destruction,  of  the 
Indian  race."  I  would  exceed  the  limits  of  my  plan  by 
proving  his  injustice  towards  the  civilizing  action  of 
Catholicity, — as  in  Mexico, — and  I  leave  it  to  Protestant 
writers  to  clear  their  churches  from  the  other  reproach.^ 

Brinton's  lundamental  thesis  receives  some  strength 
fron  E.  G.  Squier's  tendency  to  consider  all  American 
myths  as  having  some  force  of  nature  for  their  motive, 
and  H.  H.  Bancroft  pays  respectful  attention  to  this 
theory,  which,  as  a  general  thing,  is  devoid  of  founda- 
tion. As  for  ourselves,  we  do  not  set  up  any  a  priori 
system ;  but,  as  it  behooves  an  historian,  we  look  for 
precise  statements  of  facts,  which  we  record  as  we  find 
them,  reserving  the  right,  however,  to  draw  from  them 
such  general  conclusions  as  their  number  and  similarity 
may  force  upon  an  attentive  observer. 

»  Winsor,  rol.  i.  pp.  429,  430. 


CHAPTER    X. 


A   SYNOPSIS   OF    THE    CIVIL    HISTORY   OF    OUR    NATIVES. 


America  was  inhabited,  at  the  time  of  Columbus's 
discovery,  by  four  or  five  distinct  groups  of  nations. 
The  sturdy  descendants  of  ancient  Northman  settlers 
were  still  holding  out  on  the  western  coast  of  Green- 
land, in  spite  of  repeated  raids  of  their  pagan  neigh- 
bors, and  were  granted  a  new  bishop  during  the  very 
time  of  the  first  discovery  voyage  of  Columbus.  Of 
these  interesting  people  we  shall  give  ample  infor- 
mation. 

The  present  British  Dominion  and  our  United  States 
were  inhabited  by  the  numerous  savage  tribes  whose 
lingering  remnants  greatly  resemble  their  parents  yet. 
The  eastern  slope  of  South  America,  as  well  as  the 
Antilles,  was  the  abode  and  hunting-ground  of  many 
nations,  physically  like  to  those  of  the  northern  half  of 
our  continent,  but  generally  more  degraded  and  fero- 
cious still.  Central  America  and  the  strip  of  land  west 
of  the  Andean  summits  formed  the  territories  of  two 
powerful  empires,  which,  although  widely  diflferent  in 
other  characteristics,  were  both  remarkable  for  their 
singular  amalgam  of  civil,  scientific,  and  religious  insti- 
tutions, and  of  the  fiercest  savagery  and  corruption. 

The  emperors  of  Mexico  and  the  Incas  of  Peru  had 
erected  large  public  buildings  and  religious  edifices 
that  were  not  devoid  of  interest  and  testified  to  some 
degree  of  architectural  skill ;  but  their  monuments 
were  nothing  to  compare  with  the  grand  artistic  relics 
of  their  ancient  predecessors,  while  in  all  the  rest  of 

283 


234       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


America,  aside  from  the  miserable  huts  of  the  nomadic 
Indians,  not  a  single  memorial  could  be  found  to  give 
evidence  to  national  history  for  several  centuries  pagt. 

Much  has  been  written  and  very  little  is  known 
about  the  international  relations  of  the  numerous 
peoples  and  tribes  in  America  during  half  a  dozen 
centuries  preceding  Columbus's  discovery.  All  we 
know  with  certainty  is,  that  wars  were  numerous  and 
cruel  all  over  the  hemisphere.  Tribes  were  drowned 
in  their  blood,  while  others  were  driven  away  from 
their  ancestral  homes.  Game  and  women  in  the  North, 
human  victims  in  the  Centre,  and  human  flesh  in  the 
Southeast  were  the  general  objects  of  constant  warfare, 
in  which  the  stronger  human  animal  destroyed  or 
exiled  the  weaker. 

The  Esquimaux,  slowly  driven  to  their  snowy  haunts, 
succeeded,  in  turn,  in  levelling  the  settlements  of  the 
ancient  Irish  and  Northmen  in  the  Northeast.  Other 
tribes  were  thrust  away  from  their  hunting-grounds  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic, 
and  in  Mexico  one  nation  took  the  place  of  another. 
The  peaceful  tribes  of  the  Antilles  and  of  Brazil  formed 
the  game  of  their  cannibal  neighbors,  and  the  kings  of 
Cuzco  reduced  into  servitude  the  brutal  people  grazing 
between  the  Andes  and  the  Pacific  Ocean. 

We  could  not  afford  the  space  to  acquaint  our  read- 
ers with  all  the  intricate  probabilities  which,  in  the 
absence  of  historical  records,  have  been  set  forth  in  re- 
gard to  the  social  revolutions  and  the  numerous  politi- 
cal changes  that  took  place  among  the  American  peoples 
during  early  Christian  times.  Yet  we  are  in  possession 
of  some  pretty  definite  knowledge  concerning  the  actual 
movements  of  the  American  nations.  H.  H.  Bancroft, 
and  Prescott  in  his  Histories  of  the  Conquest  of  Mex- 
ico and  of  Peru,  afford  us  some  valuable  information, 


CIVIL   HISTORY    OF   OUR    NATIVES. 


235 


enlarged  by  other  writers.  Winchell^  gives  a  fair 
synopsis,  from  which  we  make  a  few  extracts. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Rink  that  the  Esquimaux 
once  lived  in  the  interior  of  North  America,  and  that 
they  have  been  pressed  northward  and  northwestward, 
and  even  back,  across  Behring  Strait,  by  the  hardier 
and  more  powerful  hunting  tribes ;  while  it  is  duly  re- 
corded that  the  Esquimaux  have  occupied  regions  much 
farther  south  than  they  do  at  present.  The  Kopag-Mut, 
now  relegated  in  Alaska  and  Siberia  to  the  border  of 
the  frozen  ocean,  formerly  extended  two  hundred  miles 
up  the  Mackenzie  River.  At  the  beginning  of  the  last 
century,  according  to  Charlevoix,  Esquimaux  were 
occasionally  seen  in  Newfoundland,  and  about  the 
year  1000  they  lived  farther  south  on  the  Atlantic 
coast.  Several  Icelandic  sagas  relate  that  Leif  Ericsson 
founded  a  colony  in  a  region,  now  Rhode  Island,  where 
he  encountered  some  dwarfish  natives,  whom  he  called 
Skraelings.  Certainly  the  stately  Algonquins,  whom 
the  first  white  settlers  met  in  New  England,  could 
not  be  described  by  Icelanders  as  dwarfish ;  and  we 
have  in  the  facts  ground  for  a  belief  that  much  of 
North  America  was  once  occupied  by  the  Esquimau 
tribes,  afterwards  driven  north  by  the  warlike  Indians  of 
the  Linapi  race.  The  opinion  of  Dr.  Rink  is  accepted 
and  developed  by  Professor  Dall,  who  has  spent  several 
years  in  Alaska.  The  first  appearance  of  the  Esqui- 
maux in  Greenland  after  or  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  is  a  fact  and  date  in  accordance  with 
their  gradual  removal  from  the  interior  of  America. 

Many  of  the  tribes  of  Washington  and  Oregon  have 
been  in  motion  westward.  Dr.  George  Gibbs  conjec- 
tures that  the  Tahkali  and  Selish  families,  with  perhaps 


i 


»  P.  388,  seq. 


236       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


the  Shoshoni  and  some  others,  originated  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

Near  the  coast  the  movements  of  migration  have, 
in  most  instances,  been  southward.  The  Tchinooks. 
have  traditions  of  a  northern  origin.  Dr.  Gibbs  names 
several  tribes  which  are  known  to  have  moved  south- 
ward. The  Shoshoni  themselves  have  been  driven  in 
a  southern  as  well  as  in  a  western  direction. 

The  Mexican  nations  had  likewise  traditions  of  south- 
ward removals  which  are  still  more  articulate.  They 
are  represented  as  preceding  from  a  distant  country 
in  the  Northeast,  named  Azilan.  Before  the  arrival 
in  Anahuac  of  the  founders  of  the  Aztecan  State,  sev- 
eral other  migrations  had  taken  place  from  the  same 
region  and  the  same  stock  of  p  3ople,  who  displaced  the 
tribes  already  in  possession,  as  the  Olmecs,  the  Otomi, 
the  Totonacs,  the  Mistecs,  the  Tarascos,  and  the  Zapote- 
cas.  Two  general  routes  seem  to  have  been  pursued  by 
the  Nahuatlac  emigrants :  One  was  on  the  east  of  the 
Rocky  Mountain  ranges,  along  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  the  Gulf,  and  thence  over  the  lowland  bor- 
der through  Tamaulipas  and  San  Leon  towards  the 
Mexican  table-land ;  the  other  route  lay  west  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains. 

Early  in  the  seventh  century  the  Toltecs  arrived 
from  the  same  northeastern  quarters.  Their  migra- 
tion probably  extended  over  centuries.  The  monarchy 
which  they  established  fell  to  pieces  about  the  year 
1018,  and  a  remnant  of  the  Toltec  people  sought  a 
rufuge  in  Guatemala  and  Nicaragua.  The  Chichiraecs, 
who  from  time  immemorial  had  hung  on  their  north- 
ern borders,  now  assumed  possession  on  the  site  of  the 
former  Toltecan  State. 

Soon  after  began  the  invasion  of  the  group  of  tribes 
known  as  the  Nahuatlacs.     The  seventh  and  the  last 


CIVIL   HISTOllY    OF   OUR   NATIVES. 


237 


of  these  was  the  celebrated  Aztecs,  who  arrived  after  a 
considerable  interval.  From  the  Aztecs'  annals  we 
learn  that  they  issued  from  Aztlan  in  the  year  1090. 
In  their  paradise  of  the  Anahuac  table-land  they  reared 
or  adulterated  that  civilization  which  excited  the  wonder, 
the  horror,  and  the  cupidity  of  the  Spaniards. 

As  Hellwald  observes,  a  doubt  can  scarcely  exist 
that  the  countries  of  the  Isthmus  were  reached  by 
migrations  IVom  Anahuac.  The  Chibcas  or  Muyscas 
of  New  Granada,  stretching  as  far  as  Cundinamarca 
and  Bogota,  possess  some  myths  which  clearly  remind 
us  of  the  Toltecs. 

Distinct  evidences  of  migrations  are  found  in  Peru. 
On  the  rise  of  the  Inca  domination  the  Aymaras  had 
been  in  possession  since  a  mythical  antiquity.  Many 
of  the  monuments  of  Peru  pertain  to  this  older  people. 
The  sepulchral  mounds  were  theirs ;  the  gorgeous  tem- 
ple of  Pachacamac  was  theirs  ;  the  extensive  structures 
near  Tiahuanaco,  on  Lake  Titicaca,  were  theirs,  and 
perhaps  also  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Caxamarquilla. 
These  people  retreated  before  the  Incas,  towards  the 
Southwest  and  the  South,  and  in  the  fifteenth  century 
they  were  as  far  as  Chili.  The  Incas  themselves  had 
very  probably  a  northern  origin.  Their  civilization 
presents  so  many  points  of  resemblance  with  that  of  the 
Toltecs  that  we  are  constrained  to  regard  them  as  near 
relatives,  if,  indeed,  they  were  not  the  Toltecs  them- 
selves, appearing  in  due  time  after  the  decay  of  their 
empire  in  Mexico.  This  is  the  conclusion  of  that  saga- 
cious observer  and  almost  inspired  generalizer,  Alexaii^ 
der  von  Humboldt ;  and  this  view  is  entertained  by  von 
Hellwald  and,  as  I  judge,  by  ethnologists  generally. 

The  Inca  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  ^  acknowledges  that 


f/ 


'  Comentarios,  lib.  i.  cap.  xvii.  p.  20  ;  lib.  ii.  cap.  i.  p.  32. 


238       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


:    !:i- 


he  could  not  exactly  state  the  number  of  years  since 
"  our  Father,  the  Sun,  sent  his  first  children  to  Peru  ;" 
but  it  is  so  long  ago,  he  says,  that  its  memory  has  been 
lost.  He  holds  that  the  event  took  place  "  over  four 
hundred  years  ago," — that  is,  during  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. Yet  he  remarks  that  Father  Bias  Valera  ascribes 
it  to  the  eleventh,  or  even  to  the  tenth,  century. 

The  history  of  the  earlier  races  of  Mexico  and  Cen- 
tral America,  resting  on  traditions  or  on  questionable 
records,  is  full  of  obscurity  and  doubt.  The  number 
and  diversity  of  the  architectural  and  other  remains 
found  on  the  soil  of  Mexico  and  of  the  adjacent  regions, 
and  the  immense  variety  of  the  spoken  languages,  with 
the  vestiges  of  others  that  have  passed  out  of  use,  point 
to  conclusions  that  render  the  subject  one  of  the  most 
attractive  fields  for  critical  investigation.^ 

The  advent  of  the  Nahua  nations  in  Central  Amer- 
ica is  even  more  uncertain  than  that  of  the  Incas  in 
Peru.  According  to  the  oldest  traditions  o^  our  civil- 
ized aborigines, — the  only  historical  sources  on  the  sub- 
ject,— the  Nahuas  overthrew  the  old  effete  monarchy  of 
Chibalba,  or  the  higher-cultured  ancient  Mayas,  at  a 
date  which  may  approximately  be  fixed  within  a  cen- 
tury before  or  after  the  beginning  of  our  era.  "  Respect- 
ing the  ensuing  period  of  Nahua  greatness  in  central 
America  nothing  is  recorded,  save  that  it  ended  in  civil 
war,  disaster,  and  a  general  scattering  of  the  tribes,  at 
some  period  probably  preceding  the  fifth  century. 
The  national  names  that  appear  in  connection  with 
the  closing  struggles  are  the  Toltecs,  the  Chichimecs, 
and  the  Quiches,  none  of  them  apparently  identical 
with  the  Chibalbans."  ^  Cabrera  gives  the  year  181  b.c. 
as  the  date  of  the  Toltecs'  arrival ;  Brasseur  de  Bour- 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  9,  n. 


*  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  234. 


CIVIL   HISTORY    OF   OUR    NATIVES. 


239 


bourg,  the  last  of  the  fourth  century  as  the  time  of 
their  migration  ;  Veytia  and  Clavigero  add  another 
century/  The  native  historian  Ixtlilxochitl  states  that 
le  Toltecs  were  banished  from  their  country,  sailed  and 
:  jasted  on  the  South  Sea,  arrived  at  Huitlapalan,  the 
Gulf  of  California  or  i.  place  on  the  coast  of  California, 
in  A.D.  387  ;  coasted  Xalisco,  arrived  at  Guatulco,  and 
finally  at  Tulancingo,  in  Anahuac,  in  the  sixth  century.'^ 
Tradition  attributes  to  the  Toltecs  a  higher  culture 
than  that  found  among  the  Aztecs  in  later  times.  Pres- 
cott  expresses  the  same  opinion  when  stating  that  the 
Toltecs  were  well  'nstructed  in  agriculture  and  many 
of  the  most  useful  mechanical  arts,  were  nice  workers 
of  metals,  and,  in  short,  were  the  true  fountains  of  the 
civilization  which  afterwards  distinguished  this  part  of 
the  continent.^  They  introduced  the  cotton-plant  and 
the  maize,  they  built  cities  and  pyramids,  whose  sides  per- 
fectly corresponded  with  the  cardinal  points ;  they  had  a 
picture-writing,  and  their  solar  year  was  calculated  with 
greater  accuracy  than  that  of  the  ancient  Greeks  or 
Romans.*  Their  name  became  synonymous  with  all  that 
is  skilful  and  excellent  in  art.  Nopaltzin,  one  of  the 
wisest  kinjofs  of  their  conquerors,  the  Chichimecs,  did  all 
in  his }.  <<v7e.  'o  '•'dvance  among  his  people  the  civilization 
of  the  r  &iiqv  i,  whom  he  employed  as  masters  of  agri- 
culture ^i r  ■-':'■  r;  il  arts.  For  centuricL^  after,  all  that  was 
great  a,  •  ^  'cot  in  Mexico  was  ascribed  by  the  natives 
to  their  otherwise  long-forgotten  Toltec  predecessors.® 

This  civilization,  through  which  they  had  gradually 
ascended  in  power  among  their  neighbors  during  the 


I 


^  Cabrera,  Teatro,  p.  90  ;  Veytia, 
t.  i.  p.  208 ;  Clavigero,  t.  i.  p. 
46,  ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  211, 
n.  73. 

^  Ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  214  and 
n.  76,  ibid.  ;  Nadaillac,  p.  271. 


'  Conquest  of  Mexico,  ref.  to 
Ixtlilxochitl,  Sahagun,  and  Veytia. 

*  Rotteck,  Bd.  vii.  S.  63. 

0  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  pp.  240,  320, 
passim ;  Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  88. 


240       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


1^  \ 


sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  did  not,  however,  save  them 
from  ruin.  During  the  most  flourishing  period  of  its 
five  traditional  centuries  of  duration,  the  Toltec  empire 
was  properly  a  confederacy ;  but  in  the  beginning  of 
the  eleventh  it  had  become  a  kingdom,  vice  had  spread 
among  all  classes  of  society,  and  its  king  Acxitl  was 
wholly  unable  to  check  the  torrent  of  moral  corrup- 
tion. Indeed,  in  his  desire  to  atone  for  former  mis- 
takes, he  seems  to  have  resorted  to  such  severe  measures 
as  defeated  his  laudable  aims  by  converting  his  former 
friends  and  flatterers  into  bitter  foes.  The  empire  of 
Tollan  or  TuUa,  thus  weakened  by  immorality  mA  dis- 
cord, gave  way  to  the  growing  power  and  authority  of 
the  rude  mountainous  Chichimec  nations,  and  Acxitl 
Topiltzin  left  his  throne  and  country  in  the  year  1062.^ 
Veytia,  however,  assigns  the  Chichimec  victory  to  the 
year  1117,  Ixtlilxochitl  gives  several  different  dates, 
varying  from  962  to  1015,  and  Clavigero  names  1170, 
while  other  historians  still  will  have  it  that  the  ruin  of 
the  Toltec  power  preceded  the  Chichimec  invasion.'^ 

The  history  of  these  ancient  periods  in  the  Mexican 
provinces  is  far  from  being  correctly  known.  Prescott, 
than  whom  no  better  informed  writer  could  be  con- 
sulted, presents  the  following  considerations  in  speak- 
ing of  the  monuments  of  Teotihuacan,  the  most  an- 
cient remains  probably  on  the  Mexican  soil :  "  What 
thoughts,"  he  says,  "  must  crowd  the  mind  of  the  trav- 
eller as  he  wanders  amidst  these  memorials  of  the  past ; 
as  he  treads  over  the  ashes  of  the  generations  who 
reared  these  colossal  fabrics,  which  take  us  from  the 
present  into  the  very  depths  of  time  !  But  who  were 
their  builders  ?  Was  it  the  shadowy  Olmecs,  whose  his- 
tory, like  that  of  the  ancient  Titans,  is  lost  in  the  mists 


1  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  pp.  239,  278, 
281-285. 


Nadaillac,  p.  282. 


CIVIL   HISTORY   OF   OUK   NATIVES. 


241 


of  fable  ;  or,  as  commonly  reported,  the  peaceful  and  in- 
dustrious Toltecs,  of  whom  all  that  we  can  glean  rests 
on  traditions  hardly  more  secure  ?  What  has  becoirie 
of  the  races  that  built  them  ?  Did  they  remain  on  the 
soil,  and  mingle  and  become  incorporated  with  the 
fierce  Aztecs  who  succeeded  them,  or  did  they  pass  on  to 
the  South?  It  is  all  a  mystery,  over  which  time  has 
thrown  an  impenetrable  veil,  that  no  mortal  hand  may 
raise.  A  nation  has  passed  away, — powerful,  populous, 
and  well  advanced  in  refinement,  as  attested  by  their 
monuments, — but  it  has  perished  without  a  name.  It 
has  died  and  made  no  sign  !"  ^ 

During  the  commencement  of  the  Chichimec  domi- 
nation, several  more  tribes  of  the  same  Nahua  race  en- 
tered the  territories  of  New  Spain  under  the  name  of 
Nahuatlacas.  Acosta,  whose  statement  is  sustained  by 
the  greater  number  of  historians,  says,  "  The  Navatla- 
cas  came  from  farre  countries,  which  lie  toward  the 
North,  where  now  they  have  discovered  a  kingdomme 
they  call  New  Mexico.  By  the  computation  of  their 
bookes  it  is  above  eight  hundred  yeeres  since  these  Na- 
vatlacas  came  foorth  in  their  country  ;  reducing  which 
to  our  account,  was  about  the  yeere  of  Our  Lord  seven 
hundred  and  twenty,  when  they  left  their  country  to 
come  to  Mexico.  They  stayed  foure  score  years  upon 
the  way,  according  to  the  will  of  the  devill  who  spake 
visibly  unto  them.  They  entered  the  land  of  Mexico 
in  the  yeare  902  after  our  computation."  ^ 

There  were  seven  nations  of  Nahuatlacas  which  set- 
tled down  in  Mexico,  one  after  anoth"\,  the  same  author 
says.  Bancroft  adds  that,  indeed,  the  list  of  Nahuatlaca 
tribes  who  were  at  one  time  together  at  Chicomoztoc 
comprises  only  seven,  according  to  most  authors.     They 


\ 


'  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p. 
378. 

I.— 16 


Bk.  vii.  ch.  vii.  p.  449,  seq. 


242       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'i 


are  named  for  the  most  part  after  the  localities  in 
which  they  subsequently  settled,  in  or  about  Anahuac, 
and  are  as  follows :  the  Xochimilcas,  Chalcas,  Tepa- 
necs,  Acolhuas,  Tlahuicas,  Tlascaltecs,  and  the  Aztecs 
or  Mexicans.^ 

The  Acolhuas,  better  known  by  the  name  of  Tezcu- 
cans,  from  their  capital,  Tezcuco,  on  the  eastern  border 
of  the  Mexican  lake,  were  peculiarly  fitted  by  their 
comparatively  mild  religion  and  manners  for  receiving 
the  tincture  of  civilization  which  could  be  derived  from 
the  few  Toltecs  that  had  remained  in  the  country.  They 
gradually  stretched  their  empire  over  the  ruder  tribes 
of  the  North,  while  their  capital  was  filled  with  a  nu- 
merous population,  busily  employed  in  many  of  the 
more  useful  and  even  elegant  arts  of  a  civilized  com- 
munity.'* 

In  this  palmy  state  they  were  suddenly  assaulted 
by  a  warlike  neighbor,  the  Tepanecs,  their  own  kin- 
dred, and  inhabitants  of  the  same  valley  as  themselves. 
Their  provinces  were  overrun,  their  armies  beaten,  their 
king  assassinated,  and  the  flourishing  city  of  Tezcuco 
became  the  prize  of  the  victor.  From  this  abject  con- 
dition the  uncommon  abilities  of  the  young  prince 
Nezahualcoyotl,  the  rightful  heir  to  the  crown,  backed 
by  the  efficient  aid  of  his  Mexican  allies,  at  length 
redeemed  the  State  and  opened  to  it  a  new  career  of 
prosperity. 

The  Mexicans  came  from  the  North  to  the  highlands 
of  Anahuac  towards  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century.  For  a  long  time  they  continued  shifting  their 
quarters  to  difierent  parts  of  the  Mexican  valley,  but  at 


I 


*  To  these  some  writers  add  the  huixcaa.     (Acosta,  bk.  vii.  ch.  vii. 

Tarascos,    Matlaltzincaa,    Malinal-  p.  449  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  307. ) 
cas,      Cholultecs,      Huexotzincas,        '  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 

Cuitlahuacs,    Mizquicas,    and    Co-  vol.  i.  p.  15,  seq. 


CIVIL   HISTORY   OF   OUR   NATIVES. 


243 


last  they  halted  on  the  southwestern  borders  of  the 
principal  lake  in  the  year  1325,  and  laid  the  foundations 
of  their  future  city  by  sinking  piles  into  the  shallows ; 
for  the  low  marshes  were  half  buried  under  water.  Such 
were  the  humble  beginnings  of  Mexico,  the  Venice  of 
the  Western  World. 

The  Aztecs  gradually  increased  in  numbers  and 
strengthened  themselves  by  various  improvements  in 
their  polity  and  military  discipline,  while  they  estab- 
lished a  reputation  for  courage  as  well  as  for  c'uelty  in 
war,  which  made  their  name  terrible  throughout  the 
valley.  In  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
prince  of  Tezcuco  succeeded  in  mustering  such  a  force 
as,  with  the  aid  of  the  Aztecs,  placed  him  on  a  level 
with  the  Tepanecs,  the  conquerors  of  his  father.  In  two 
successive  battles  the  latter  were  defeated,  their  chief 
slain,  and  their  territory,  by  one  of  those  sudden  re- 
verses which  characterize  the  wars  of  petty  states, 
passed  into  the  hands  of  the  Mexicans,  in  return  for 
their  important  services. 

Then  was  formed  that  remarkable  league,  which  has 
no  parallel  in  history.  It  was  agreed  between  the  States 
of  Mexico,  Tezcuco,  and  the  neighboring  little  king- 
dom of  Tlacopan,  that  they  should  mutually  support 
each  other  in  their  wars,  offensive  and  defensive ;  and 
that,  in  the  distribution  of  the  spoil,  one-fifth  should  be 
assigned  to  Tlacopan  and  the  remainder  be  divided — in 
what  proportion  is  uncertain — between  the  two  other 
powers.  Certain  it  is  that  Mexico  obtained  eventually 
the  greatest  increase  of  territory,  while  Tezcuco  itself 
was  reduced  almost  to  the  condition  of  a  vassal.  What 
is  more  extraordinary  than  the  treaty  itself  is  the  fidelity 
with  which  it  was  maintained.  During  a  century  of 
uninterrupted  warfare  that  ensued,  no  instance  occurred 
where  the  parties  quarrelled  over  the  division  of  the 


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244       HISTORY    OF    AMKRICA    BP:F0RE    COLUMBUS. 

spoil,  which  so  often  causes  shipwreck  of  similar  con- 
federacies among  civilized  nations. 

The  allies  soon  overleaped  the  rocky  ramparts  of 
their  own  valley,  and  by  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  had  spread  down  the  sides  of  the  table-land  to 
the  borders  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  Tenochtitlan,  the 
Aztec  capital,  gave  evidence  of  the  public  prosperity. 
Its  frail  tenements  were  supplanted  by  solid  structures 
of  stone  and  lime,  and  its  population  rapidly  increased. 
Fortunately,  the  throne  was  filled  by  a  succession  of 
able  princes,  who  knew  how  to  profit  by  their  enlarged 
resources  and  by  the  martial  enthusiasm  of  the  nation. 
Year  after  year  saw  them  return  to  their  capital  loaded 
with  the  spoils  of  conquered  cities  and  with  throngs  of 
devoted  captives.  No  state  was  able  long  to  resist  the 
accumulated  strength  of  the  confederates.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century,  just  before  the  arrival 
of  the  Spaniards,  the  Aztec  dominion  reached  across 
the  continent  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and, 
under  the  bold  and  bloody  Ahuitzotl,  its  arms  had 
been  carried  into  the  farthest  corners  of  Guatemala 
and  Nicaragua. 

The  history  of  the  Mexicans  suggests  some  strong 
points  of  resemblance  to  that  of  the  ancient  Romans, 
not  only  in  their  military  successes,  but  in  the  policy 
which  led  to  them,  as  also  in  the  partial  adoption  of  the 
religion  and  civilization  of  the  conquered  nations. 

Defeat,  however,  and  the  consequent  tribute  of  pro- 
duce, of  labor,  and  of  life  kindled  and  fanned  in  the 
hearts  of  the  conquered  races  the  passion  of  revolt  and 
revenge ;  the  yoke  of  the  arrogant  strangers  galled  their 
curbed  necks,  and  they  were  anxious  to  cast  it  off  on 
the  first  occasion.  The  Aztec  tyrants  did  not,  as  the 
Peruvian  Incas,  incorporate  into  one  people  the  victors 
and  the  vanquished,  but  considered  the  latter  as  their 


CIVIL   HISTORY   OF  OUR   NATIVES. 


246 


servants,  to  be  made  obedient  by  oppression.  The  once 
independent  but  now  down-trodden  caciques  or  chief- 
tains were  anxiously  looking  for,  yet  almost  de8|)airing 
to  find,  an  opportunity  of  ridding  themselves  of  the  ever- 
increasing  burdens  imposed  upon  them  by  the  proud, 
lewd,  and  cruel  tyrants  of  Mexico. 

Such  is  nearly  all  the  scant  information  that  could 
with  any  confidence  be  drawn  from  aboriginal  tradi- 
tions and  dubious  records  in  regard  to  American  civil 
history  during  the  first  fifteen  centuries  of  the  Chris- 
tian era.  The  ruin,  however,  of  the  two  most  powerful 
and  cultured  commonwealths  of  our  continent  has  been 
duly  recorded  by  both  the  men  who  violently  conquered 
them  and  by  those  who  mildly  brought  them  a  higher, 
the  Christian  civilization. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Aztecs 
had  net  only  excited  the  hatred  of  the  most  power- 
ful nations  outside  the  bounds  of  the  Mexican  val- 
ley by  their  raids  for  slaves  and  human  victims,  but 
by  their  arrogant,  overbearing  spirit  they  had  made 
themselves  also  obnoxious  at  home.  Their  enemies 
readily  assisted  the  Spanish  conqueror  Cortes  in  sub- 
duing them,  and  were  happy  to  submit  to  a  foreign 
despotism,  which,  although  far  from  being  mild,  yet 
imposed  upon  them  less  duties  and  saved  their  blood 
from  being  shed  in  honor  of  the  "murderer  from  the 
beginning."  ^ 

After  the  Mexican  emperor,  Montezuma,  had  died  a 
prisoner  in  the  camp  of  the  invading  Spaniards,  not  one 
of  his  provinces  rose  to  avenge  his  captivity  and  the 
disgrace  to  which  he  had  been  subjected.     The  fearful 


1  St.  John  viii.  44.  The  fore- 
going jmrticulars  are  taken  ahnost 
verbatim  from  the  "History  of  the 
Conquest  of  Mexico,"  vol.  i.  p.  15, 
seq.     We  rely  on  this,  as  also  on 


Prescott's  other  great  work,  the 
"  History  of  the  Conquest  of  Peru," 
in  writing  the  laat  paragraphs  of 
this  chapter. 


246       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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execution  of  the  Noche  Triste  was  the  exclusive  work 
of  the  citizens  of  the  capital.  In  vain  did  Cuitlahua, 
Montezuma's  brother  and  successor,  call  upon  the  Tlas- 
calans  and  other  cognate  tribes  of  the  empire  to  de- 
fend their  common  religion  and  country,  although  it 
was  evident  that  the  foreigners  were  so  weakened  as  to 
be  unable  to  resist  a  Nahua  coalition.  When  Cortes 
lay  siege  to  the  city  of  Mexico,  it  was  the  former  Mex- 
ican subjects  who  did  most  of  the  fighting  and  of  the 
subsequent  destruction  of  the  doomed  city  ;  and  when, 
finally,  in  the  year  1521,  Guatemozin,  the  last  Mexican 
ruler,  was  taken  a  prisoner  and  afterwards  put  to  death, 
he  had  but  few  subjects  left  that  would  mourn  over  him. 
Not  one  arose  to  revenge  him  or  to  give  him  another 
Aztec  successor.  But  ere  long  the  whole  of  the  ancient 
empire  was  submissive  to  its  foreign  conquerors,  and 
so  quiet  and  comparatively  well  pleased  that  even  a 
Spaniard  could  travel  unmolested  from  one  end  of  the 
countrv  to  another. 

Sucl  was  the  shameful  end  of  the  most  powerful 
empire  c  America's  second  period  of  civilization,  at  the 
time  thai  it  had  extended  as  far  as  the  oceans  would 
permit,  and  had  enjoyed  for  some  time  already  the  full 
fruition  of  ancestral  victories.  Its  ruin  had  been  pre- 
pared long  before  by  its  gigantic  crimes,  and  particu- 
larly by  the  bloody  tyranny  of  its  raonarchs. 

The  subversion  of  the  other  great  and  civilized 
country  of  ancient  America,  of  Peru,  diifered  from 
that  of  the  former  in  several  respects.  Unnatural 
vices  of  the  Peruvians  justified  abundantly  the  punish- 
ment which  Divine  Providence  allowed  the  greedy 
Spaniards  to  inflict  upon  them ;  but  Pizarro's  task  was 
heavier  than  that  of  Cortes,  because  he  had  to  meet 
numerous  tribes  strongly  united  through  the  wise  policy 
of  their  rulers 


CIVIL    HISTORY    OF    OUR    NATIVES. 


247 


Peru  was  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest  in  the 
growing  strength  of  manhood.  Since  Manco  Capac 
had  laid  the  foundation  of  the  latest  Peruvian  empire, 
several  Incas,  his  successors,  had  gradually  conquered 
and  incorporated  the  various  wild  tribes  of  Peru 
proper  till  Tupac  Inca  Yupanqui  led  his  armies 
across  the  borders  of  Chili  to  the  South,  and  his  son, 
Huayna  Capac,  conquered  for  him  the  southern  prov- 
inces of  the  State  of  Quito.  After  his  accession  to  the 
throne,  this  latter  prince  reduced  under  his  sceptre  the 
entire  northern  State,  almost  as  large,  rich,  and  refined 
as  that  of  Peru  itself.  By  a  daughter  of  the  dispos- 
sessed ruler  of  Quito,  Huayna  Capac  had  a  favorite 
son,  to  whom  by  last  will  he  left  most  impolitically  the 
northern  half  of  his  empire,  whilst  his  legitimate  heir, 
Huascar,  was  to  be  satisfied  with  the  ancient  Incas'  ter- 
ritories. This  policy,  as  the  dying  father  might  easily 
have  foreseen,  soon  gave  occasion  to  rivalry  among  his 
children,  the  result  of  which  was  a  fierce  war  between 
the  two  countries  which  had  been  bitter  enemies  for 
many  years.  Atahuallpa,  the  heir  of  the  northern 
provinces,  succeeded  in  defeating  his  elder  brother, 
whom  he  cast  into  prison,  and  whose  royal  insignia 
and  authority  he  assumed  all  over  the  reunited  king- 
doms. 

These  important  events  took  place  a  few  months  be- 
fore the  landing  in  Peru  of  the  Spanish  adventurer 
Pizarro,  whose  confidence  in  his  undertakings  they 
greatly  increased.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that 
the  late  divisions  of  the  Peruvian  empire  were  of  any 
special  avail  towards  the  victories  of  the  Spaniards. 
Yet  Atahuallpa  met  at  the  hands  of  the  white  foreign- 
ers with  the  punishment  of  his  ambition  and  of  his 
cruelty  towards  his  own  relatives,  the  greater  number 
of  whom  he  had  put  to  death,  while  confining  his  own 


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248       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

defeated  brother  in  the  prison  in  which,  it  is  said,  he 
ordered  hira  to  be  murdered  when  he  had  become  a 
prisoner  himself. 

Pizarro,  in  order  to  succeed  more  easily  in  subduing 
the  Peruvians  by  using  the  influence  of  a  Peruvian 
prince,  set  up  as  a  successor  to  Atahuallpa,  whom  he 
had  condemned  to  a  shameful  death,  the  brother  of  his 
victim,  the  young  Toparca,  around  whose  forehead  he 
bound  the  crimson  borla  or  tasselled  fringe  which  was 
to  claim  from  the  people  for  him,  or,  in  fact,  for  Pizarro, 
the  blind  obedience  ever  paid  to  the  Incas  adorned  with 
these  royal  insignia. 

But  Pizarro  was  greatly  disappointed  soon  after  by 
the  death  of  Toparca  in  the  Spanish  camp,  and  obliged 
to  renew  the  mock  ceremonies  of  an  Inca  coronation. 
More  unfortunate  in  his  choice  this  time,  he  appointed 
as  the  next  theatre-king  of  Peru  the  second  legitimate 
son  of  Huayna  Capac,  Manco  by  name,  who  received 
the  borla  with  all  customary  solemnities  in  the  city  of 
Cuzco,  to  the  supreme  satisfaction  of  the  natives,  who 
felt  happy  by  imagining  that  the  son  of  their  late 
glorious  Inca  was  yet  to  rule  over  them.  A  few  days 
after,  however,  on  the  24th  of  March,  1584,  Pizarro 
named  all  the  officers  who  were  to  exercise  any  real 
authority  in  the  capital  of  Cuzco. 

Manco,  soon  aware  of  the  intentions  of  his  pre- 
tended benefactor,  finally  succeeded  in  his  attempts  to 
escape  from  the  custody  of  his  masters,  and,  collecting 
from  far  and  near  his  Indian  warriors,  lay  siege  to  his 
own  capital,  held  by  the  enemy,  and  made  for  several 
weeks  tremble  in  the  balance  the  fate  of  the  Spanish 
invaders.  Compelled  to  seek  security  in  his  mountain 
fastnesses,  he  continued  a  fierce  guerilla  warfare,  until  he 
was  at  last,  in  the  year  1544,  put  to  death  in  his  own 
camp  by  a  party  of  Spaniards.     A  Manco  had  opened 


CIVIL   HISTORY    OF   OUR   NATIVES. 


249 


the  brilliant  line  of  Peruvian  kings,  another  Manco 
closed  it  forever. 

The  most  tedious  researches  have  succeeded  in  giving 
us  historical  certainty  only  in  regard  to  the  last  years 
of  the  civilized  kingdoms  of  pre-Columbian  America; 
and  no  scholar  has  ever  attempted  to  look  up  the  his- 
tory of  the  thousands  of  tribes,  whose  mutual  relations 
by  alternate  wars  and  treaties  of  pc  ace  are  so  intricate 
and  obscure  that  we  can  never  expect  to  know  any 
more  of  them  than  their  modern  descendants.  We 
may  truly  say  that  the  ancient  civil  history  of  our 
continent  is  a  blank  or  a  sealed  book.  Yet  we  can 
have  a  more  complete  and  satisfactory  knowledge  of 
the  religious  and  social  institutions  of  :  ent  Ameri- 
can peoples  from  the  fact  that  their  own  traditions  are 
singularly  explained  and  completed  by  the  testimony 
of  the  European  discoverers  and  civilizers  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  These  were  intelligent  and  reliable 
witnesses  of  existing  realities,  which,  when  we  take  into 
consideration  the  more  lasting  character  of  such  insti- 
tutions, allow  us  to  make  reasonable  inductions  as  to 
doctrines  and  relations  of  a  similar  order  in  by-gone 
times. 


CHAPTEK    XL 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


■-  i  i 


True  to  evidence,  we  are  compelled  to  commence 
the  account  of  the  moral  condition  of  our  post-Christian 
aborigines  by  a  negative  and,  for  those  who  are  able  to 
understand,  a  most  distressing  statement, — to  wit,  that, 
if  we  except  Greenland  and  Iceland,  the  one  Almighty 
God  was  not  clearly  known,  nor  duly  worshipped,  on 
the  broad  extent  of  our  hemisphere  at  the  beginning 
of  the  sixteenth  century. 

The  Canadians,  says  Lescarbot,^  have  no  form  of  re- 
ligious worship,  neither  has  any  of  the  tribes  of  New 
France,  north  of  the  Spanish  dominion,  with  the  only 
exception  of  the  Virginians,  who  seem  not  entirely  to 
neglect  the  honor  of  their  gods. 

We  may  consider  as  an  expression  of  man's  religious 
instinct  the  ludicrous  ceremonies  of  our  Indians'  medi- 
cine-men, who  pretend  to  expel  or  catch  the  evil  spirits, 
the  causes  of  sickness  ;  but,  besides  these  juggling  per- 
formances, no  act  of  religious  worship  is  found  to  be 
performed  by  the  native  tribes  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. It  is  probable,  however,  that  private  prayers 
are  offered  on  exceptional  occasions  to  the  unseen 
Being,  known  by  some  Indians  under  the  name  of  the 
Great  Spirit.  The  apparently  most  ancient  of  all  North 
American  aborigines,  the  Linapi  Algonquins,  have  a 
national  hymn,  preserved  for  us  by  Heckewelder,  in 
which  such  a  petition  is  recorded.  On  the  eve  of  their 
departure  for  war  they  prayed  : 


260 


1  Pp.  718,  722. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      251 

"  Oh,  poor  me,  who  am  just  about  to  depart  to  fight 
the  enemy,  and  know  not  if  I  shall  return  to  enjoy  the 
embraces  of  my  children  and  wife  ! 

*'  Oh,  poor  creature,  who  cannot  order  his  own  life, 
who  has  no  power  over  his  own  body,  but  who  tries  to 
do  his  duty  for  the  happiness  of  his  nation  ! 

"  Oh,  thou  Great  Spirit  above,  take  pity  on  my  chil- 
dren and  on  my  wife ;  keep  them  from  sorrowing  on  my 
account ;  grant  that  I  may  succeed  in  my  enterprise, 
that  I  may  kill  my  enemy  and  bring  back  trophies  of 
war. 

"  Give  me  strength  and  courage  to  fight  my  enemy  ; 
grant  that  I  may  return  and  see  my  children  again, 
see  my  wife  and  my  relations ;  have  pity  upon  me  and 
preserve  my  life,  and  I  will  oifer  to  thee  a  sacrifice."  ^ 

This  last  phrase  is  proof  that  the  highest  form  of 
divine  worship  was  not  altogether  unknown  to  this 
ancient  nation. 

Alvar  Nufiez  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  who  lived  and  trav- 
elled nine  continuous  years  in  the  southern  portions  of 
the  United  States,  wrote  to  Emperor  Charles  V. :  "  Our 
Lord  God  will  permit,  in  his  infinite  mercy,  that  during 
your  reign  all  these  nations  willingly  submit  to  the  true 
God  who  created  and  redeemed  them.  This  we  con- 
fidently expect,  because,  on  our  journey  of  two  thou- 
sand leagues  in  this  country,  we  have  found  neither 
idolatry  nor  sacrifices  of  any  kind."  "^  **  In  the  South," 
says  Las  Oasas,^  "  on  the  coast  of  Paria  and  in  its  neigh- 
borhood, there  is  not  a  temple  to  be  found ;  and  when 
we  go  farther  east  and  aouth  as  far  as  Brazil,  we  can- 
not discover  any  knowledge  of  God  ;  not  even  idols  are 
worshipped." 


*  De  Quatrefages,  p.  492. 

*  Coleccion  de    Documentos,    B. 
de  las  Cases,  t.  Ixvi.  p.  457. 


Ibid.,  p.  469. 


252       HISTORY   OF    AMERrCA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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The  Brazilians  themBelves  had  no  worship  at  all,^  no 
more  than  their  southern  neighbors  of  La  Plata,  with 
whom  the  adoration  of  idols  was  likewise  unknown. 
The  idea  and  cult  of  the  Supreme  Being  were  thus  uni- 
versally lost  to  the  numerous  tribes  of  the  Atlantic 
slope,  apparently  the  most  ancient  and  certainly  the 
most  degraded  of  America. 

With  those  who  were  not  destitute  of  every  notion 
of  religion,  there  were  still  traces  to  be  found  of  the 
most  primitive  and  least  contemptible  form  of  idolatry, — 
namely,  of  the  sun-  and  moon-worship.  Some  authors 
consider  this  worship  as  typical  only  and  addressed  to 
the  Creator  of  these  luminaries ;  but  it  is  already  con- 
demned in  the  strongest  terms  by  the  holy  man  Job, 
who  says,^  *'  If  I  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined,  and 
the  moon  walking  in  brightness :  and  my  heart  in 
secret  hath  rejoiced,  and  I  have  kissed  my  hand  with 
my  mouth  :  which  is  a  very  great  iniquity  and  a  denial 
against  the  most  high  God." 

This  kind  of  idolatry  may  be  ascribed  to  the  abo- 
rigines of  the  Argentine  Kepublic,^  who  declared  the 
sun  to  be  more  excellent  than  all  other  creatures ;  and 
to  those  of  the  northern  coast  of  South  America,  who 
admitted  the  star  of  day  to  be  superior  to  their  other 
idols  and  gods.  Both  the  peaceful  and  the  warlike 
nations  of  the  Antilles  recognized  as  great  deities  the 
firmament  and  its  shining  lights ;  *  and,  together  with 
some  springs  of  sweet  water,  the  sun  and  the  moon  were 
the  gods  of  Cibola, — that  is,  of  the  southwestern  parts 
of  our  United  States.^  Las  Casas  says,  however,  that 
the  sun-worship  was  not  strictly  idolatrous  among  the 


»  Maffei,  lib.  ii.  p.  74. 
»  Job  xxxi.  20-28. 
*  Coleccion   de    Documentos,   B. 
de  laa  Castus,  t.  Ixvi.  p.  462. 


*  P.  Martyr,  De  Rebus  Oceanicis, 
p.  7. 

*  Las    Casas,    in    Coleccion    de 
Documentos,  t.  Ixvi.  p.  457. 


t 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      253 

tribes  of  the  Rio  Grande,  who  had,  he  says,  some 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  whom  tliey  intended  to 
adore  when  they  paid  honor  to  the  great  luminary. 
The  opinion  of  the  ancient  historian  finds  confirmation 
in  the  statement  of  Bancroft,^  who  writes  that  the  01- 
chones,  a  coast  tribe  between  San  Francisco  and  Mon- 
terey, identify  the  sun  with  that  Great  Spirit,  or,  rather, 
that  Big  Man  who  made  the  earth  and  who  rules  in  the 
sky ;  and  so  we  find  it  again,  he  adds,  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Monterey  and  San  Luis  Obispo,  where  the  first 
fruits  of  the  earth  were  offered  to  the  great  light,  and 
his  rising  was  greeted  with  cries  of  joy.  Mendieta^  ap- 
plies— on  what  grounds  we  do  not  see — this  benevolent 
explanation  to  all  the  American  aborigines,  worshippers 
of  the  sun,  and  in  particular  to  the  Peruvians,  whose 
first  Inca  and  his  sister-bride  were  considered  as  the 
sun's  children,  as  were,  similarly,  Adam  and  Eve  those 
of  the  Almighty  Creator. 

Whether  the  one  true  God  thus  received  any  medi- 
ate worship  we  shall  not  decide ;  but  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  the  sin  of  idolatry  was  extensively  committed 
in  many  parts  of  America.  Irving  thinks  that  the  In- 
dians of  Hayti  intended  to  worship  the  Supreme  Being 
when  venerating  the  firmament  and  its  great  lights ; 
but  he  agrees  that  they  also  had  a  large  number  of 
inferior  deities,  incorporated  or  imprisoned  in  statues, 
pictures,  and  other  material  forms ;  and  all  of  them 
were  served,  says  Payne,  with  a  ceremonious  worship, 
in  which  rude  hymns  were  chanted,  and  manioc  bread 
was  offered  in  sacrifice  and  afterwards  distributed 
among  the  worshippers.^  Around  the  Gulf  of  Paria 
the  natives  were  in  possession  of  various  household 


*  Vol.  iii.  p.  161.  '  Washington     Irving,     Vida    y 

'Hist.   Eccles.,  p.  88,  ap.   Ban-     Viajes,  lib.  vi.  cap.  x.  p.  475;  Ed- 
croft,  vol.  iii.  p.  194.  ward  J.  Payne,  p.  352, 


254       HISTOKY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


■A  1 


gods  and  goddesses,  without  giving  them  any  worship ; 
while  in  the  southern  parts  of  Central  America  a  small 
number  of  idols  were  honored  with  oblations  of  plants 
and  of  other  inanimate  things.^ 

Idol  worship  had  descended  in  Peru  to  the  lowest 
possible  and  most  degrading  level.  To  understand  bet- 
ter ancient  Peruvian  idolatry,  says  the  Inca  of  Cuzco, 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  it  is  necessary  to  distinguish  two 
different  periods.  During  the  former  some  of  the  tribes 
were  like  peaceful  beasts,  others  like  ferocious  brutes ; 
their  gods  were  in  keeping  with  their  abject  and  shame- 
ful manner  of  living,  as  well  in  regard  to  the  great 
number  as  to  the  vileness  of  the  things  that  they  wor- 
shipped. In  fact,  they  adored  herbs,  flowers,  and  trees 
of  all  kinds,  and  various  animals,  such  as  tigers,  lions, 
beai-s,  and  serpents,  before  which  they  would  not  flee, 
rather  preferring  to  be  killed  and  eaten  by  them.  Nor 
was  there  a  beast  so  mean  and  filthy  to  which  they 
would  not  pay  some  religious  tribute  and  veneration  as 
to  a  divine  superior.'^  Garcilasso  remarks  farther  on  ^ 
that  the  Incas  subdued  and  civilized  those  low-fallen 
creatures.  They,  indeed,  raised  the  standard  of  their 
religious  and  social  condition,  abolished  the  vilest  of 
their  idols,  and  reduced  the  number  of  humai:  vic- 
tims oftered  to  the  gods  in  the  least  degraded  of  the 
conquered  provinces. 

Nor  was  the  sun  the  only  false  god  of  the  civilized 
Peruvians ;  the  moon  was  worshipped  as  his  sister-wife, 
and  the  stars  were  revered  as  part  of  her  heavenly 
train,  while  the  fairest  of  them,  Venus,  was  venerated  as 
the  page  of  the  sun,  whom  she  attends  so  closely  in  his 


1  Coleccion  de  Dociimentoe,  B. 
de  laa  Caaas,  t.  Ixvi.  pp  459, 
477. 

^  Comentarios,  lib.  i.  cap.  ix.  p. 


12 ;    Prescott,   Conquest   of    Peru, 
vol.  i.  p.  85. 

'  Comentarios,  lib.  i.  cap.  xvii.  p. 
20. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      255 


'-'> 


rising  and  setting.  They  dedicated  temples  also  to  the 
thunder  and  lightning,  in  which  they  recognized  the 
sun's  dread  ministers,  and  to  the  rainbow,  which  they 
worshipped  as  a  beautiful  emanation  of  their  glorious 
deity.  In  addition  to  these,  the  subjects  of  the  Incas 
enrolled  among  their  gods  many  objects  in  nature,  as 
the  winds,  the  earth,  the  air,  great  mountains  and 
rivers,  which  impressed  them  with  ideas  of  sublimity 
and  power,  or  were  supposed,  in  some  way  or  other,  to 
exercise  a  mysterious  influence  over  the  destinies  of 
Their  religious  system,  far  from  being  limited 


man. 


even  to  all  these  objects  of  devotion,  embraced  within 
its  ample  folds  the  numberless  deities  of  the  conquered 
tribes,  whose  images  were  transported  to  the  capital, 
where  the  bui-lensome  cliarges  of  their  worship  were 
defrayed  by  their  respective  provinces.^ 

The  Inca  and  his  learned  nobility  or  the  "  amautas" 
had  inherited  from  a  more  anciv^nt  and  more  civilized 
Peruvian  race  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  only  one  true 
God,  and  gave  him  worship ;  nay,  the  great  feast  of 
Capac  Eaymi  was  to  be  celebrated  by  all  the  people  in 
honor  of  the  Creator  of  all  things ;  but  even  at  the 
royal  court  had  grown  up,  around  the  purer  primitive 
cult,  a  supplementary  worship  of  creatures,  such  as 
heavenly  bodies  and  objects  supposed  to  represent  the 
first  ancestors  of  tribes,  as  well  as  the  prototypes  of 
things  on  which  man's  welfare  depended,  like  flocks 
and  animals  of  the  chase,  fruit,  and  corn,'^  The  king 
or  Inca  was  practically  the  most  dreaded  and  the  most 
exacting  of  all  the  Peruvian  idols. 

Neither  did  material  civilization  save  the  Aztecs  or 
Mexican  people  from  the  disgrace  of  idol-worship  and 
of  its  fearful  consequences.     Nay,  "  whereas  the  tem- 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  92-94. 


"  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  233. 


A 


'i^  <'<:i 


Ui 


256       HISTORY   OF    A.Mi:UICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

poral  jiower  was  greatest,  there  8ii[)er8tition  tiatli  most 
increased,  as  we  see  in  the  realms  of  Mexico  and  Cuzco, 
where  it  is  incredible  to  see  the  number  of  idols  they 
had,  for  within  the  city  of  Mexico  there  were  above 
three  hundred."  ^  The  Aztecs,  Prescott  writes,^  recog- 
nized the  existence  of  a  Supreme  Creator  and  Lord  of 
the  Universe ;  but,  says  Nadaillac,^  this  assertion  is  dis- 
puted, and  everything  goes  to  prove,  on  the  contrary, 
that  polytheism  existed  among  them,  and  a  very  infe- 
rior polytheism,  too.  .  .  .  Most  certainly  the  devil  had 
never  set  up  in  any  other  portion  of  the  earth  idols  of 
a  more  sanguinary  appetite  nor  of  a  shape,  especially 
when  daubed  with  human  gore,  more  terrifying  and 
repulsive  than  those  of  Montezuma's  cultured  empire. 

Idolatry  is  one  form  of  devil-worship,  sorcery  with 
qualified  superstition  is  another.  It  would  take  much 
space  and  time  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  this  crimi- 
nal practice  in  the  different  countries  of  ancient  Amer- 
ica, which,  for  the  shame  of  our  age  of  progress,  we 
must  acknowledge  not  to  be  uprooted  yet,  when  we  see 
the  religious  instinct  of  thousands  of  our  countrymen 
reduced  to  blind,  stupid  confidence  in  a  worn  mule-shoe 
nailed  up  above  the  lintel  of  their  back-door !  We  may, 
however,  copy  here  a  page  of  an  author  who,  in  his 
ridicule  of  superstition,  evinces  his  ignorance  of  its 
actual  cause.  "  The  Mayas,"  says  Bancroft,*  "  namely, 
the  most  ancient  known  and  probably  the  most  civil- 
ized inhabitants  of  Central  America,  like  their  succes- 
sors, the  Nahuas,  were  grossly  superstitious.  They 
believed  implicitly  in  the  fulfilment  of  dreams,  the  in- 
fluence of  omens,  and  the  power  of  witches  and  wizards. 


1  Old  English  translation  of 
Acosta,  The  Natural  and  Moral 
History  of  the  Indies,  bk.  v.  ch. 
xxvii.  p.  371. 


57. 


Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p. 


'  Prehistoric  America,  p.  292. 
*  Vol.  ii.  p.  796. 


1.  p. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      257 

No  imporUiiit  matter  was  undertaken  until  its  success 
had  been  foretold  and  a  lucky  day  determined  by  the 
flight  of  a  bird  or  by  some  similar  omen.  The  cries  or 
appearance  of  certain  birds  and  animals  were  thought 
to  presage  harm  to  those  who  heard  or  saw  them.  They 
as  firmly  believed  and  were  as  well  versed  in  the  black 
art  as  their  New  England  brethren  of  a  hundred  years 
ago,  and  they  appear  to  have  had  the  same  enlightened 
horror  of  the  arts  of  gramarye,  for  in  Guatemala,  at 
least,  they  burned  witches  and  wizards  without  mercy. 
They  had  among  them,  they  said, — and  here  sorcery  is 
combined  with  superstition, — sorcerers  who  could  meta- 
morphose themselves  into  dogs,  pigs,  and  other  animals. 
Others  there  were  who  could  by  magic  cause  a  rose  to 
bloom  at  will,  and  could  bring  whomsoever  they  wished 
under  their  control  by  simply  giving  him  the  flower  to 
smell.  Unfaithful  wives,  too,  would  often  bewitch  their 
husbands,  that  their  acts  of  infidelity  might  not  be  dis- 
covered. All  these  things  are  gravely  recounted  by  the 
old  chroniclers,^  not  as  mattei3  unworthy  of  credence, 
but  as  deeds  done  at  the  instigation  and  with  the  co- 
operation of  the  devil.  Cogolludo,  speaking  of  the  per- 
formances of  a  snake-charmer,  says  that  the  magician 
took  up  the  reptile  in  his  bare  hands,  as  he  did  so  using 
certain  mystic  words,  which  Cogolludo  wrote  down  at 
the  time,  but,  finding  afterwards  that  they  were  an  in- 
vocation of  the  devil,  he  did  not  see  fit  to  reproduce 
them  in  his  work.  The  Spanish  Fathers,  if  we  may 
judge  from  their  writings,  believed  in  the  Aztec  deities 
as  firmly  as  the  natives ;  the  only  difference  was  that 
the  former  looked  upon  them  as  devils  and  the  latter  as 
gods."    The  opinion  of  the  Fathers  was  simply  correct. 

*  And   historians    more    serious  in  Kingsborough's  Mex.  Antiq.,  t. 

than  Bancroft,  such  as  Cogolludo,  viii.  p.  144 ;  Oviedo,  t.  iv.  p.  65 ; 

Hist.  Yuc,  pp.  181-184 ;  Las  Casas,  Gomara,  Hist.  Ind.,  fo.  264. 
L— 17 


,41 


I 


Is 


258       IIIHTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  anonymous  "  Kudo  Enaayo,"  dated  a.d.  17()3/ 
states  that,  in  Sonora  or  the  northwestern  province  of 
Mexico  "  no  trace  has  been  found  of  idolatrous  worship, 
— no  idols  or  objects  which  would  indicate  that  such  a 
thing  had  existed  up  to  the  j^resent  time.  The  only 
devotion  that  has  been  observed  is  one  to  the  devil,  and 
this  is  rather  caused  by  fear  and  stupidity  than  by  in- 
clination. I  am  led  to  believe  this  because  in  all  the 
ranches  or  villages  there  has  always  been  one  or  more 
sorcerers ;  at  least  they  are  called  so ;  and  these  have 
ever  been  suspected  and  feared  on  account  of  the  belief 
that  they  can  do  evil." 

Material  culture  did  not  banish  sorcery  from  Peru 
any  better  than  it  did  from  Central  America.  Divina- 
tion was  solemnly  practised.  The  priest,  after  opening 
the  body  of  the  victim,  sought  in  the  appearances  which 
it  exhibited  to  read  the  lesson  of  the  mysterious  future. 
If  the  auguries  were  unpropitious,  a  second  victim,  as 
the  omen  secundum  of  pagan  Rome,  was  slaughtered, 
in  the  hope  of  securing  more  comfortable  assurance.** 

Acosta  testifies"^  that  the  sorcerers  of  Peru  conversed 
with  the  devil  and  knew  from  him  things  that  could 
not  otherwise  be  known.  Cieza  de  Leon  relates  several 
instances  of  bodily  apparitions  of  the  evil  spirit  to  his 
votaries  of  Peru.*  No  wonder  if  the  same  diabolical 
practice  existed  in  more  barbarous  regions.  In  Brazil 
the  poor  people  were  at  the  mercy  of  soothsayers  and 
augurs.  They  had  no  clothes  to  be  robbed  of,  but  their 
scanty  food  was  the  prey  of  sorcerers  and  impostors.* 
The  aborigines  of  Hayti  had  their  sorcerers  or  medicine- 


*  Records  of  the  American  Cath- 
olic Historical  Society,  vol.  v.  p. 
171. 

'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  106,  129. 


'  Bk.  V.  ch.  xxvi.  p.  367. 

*  Ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru, 
vol.  i.  p.  108,  n.  35. 

*  Maffei,  lib.  ii.  p.  74. 


IMMORALITY   AND    MISERY    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA.     259 

men,  as  those  of  the  United  States  and  of  CanuJa  have 
them  still.^ 

Deceivers  plying  their  lucrative  art  were  probably  as 
numerous  at  that  time  as  gypsies  and  spirit  mediums 
are  to-day  ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  evil  spirit 
answered  sometimes  magicians'  conjurations  by  taking 
possession  of  the  degraded  people's  bodies,  as  we  find  it 
related  by  Las  Casas  speaking  of  the  Brazilian  tribes.'* 
Lescarbot  '^  bears  out  and  develops  the  assertion  of  the 
Indians'  great  defender  when  he  writes  that  the  devil 
personally  appeared  to  the  Brazilians,  and  at  times 
most  mercilessly  beat  and  tortured  them.  The  poor 
people,  he  says,  fell  into  trances  of  despair  when  they 
saw  "  Aignan,"  as  they  called  the  wicked  one,  coming 
to  them  in  the  form  of  an  animal  or  in  some  fantastic 
shape.  The  Canadian  savages,  through  the  medium  of 
their  magicians,  called  "  Aoutmoins,"  also  communicated 
with  the  devil,  who  seems  to  have  been  less  cruel  here 
than  in  South  America,  for  he  contented  himself  with 
throwing  dirt  into  their  eyes,  as  was  witnessed  by 
Jacques  Cartier ;  or  with  scratching  his  minions,  as 
he  did  a  certain  Memberton,  who  became  a  faithful 
Christian  from  a  sorcerer  that  he  had  been.* 

The  natives  of  Central  America  fared  no  better. 
Herrera  testifies  that  the  evil  spirit  had  become  the 
absolute  master  of  the  immoral  Indians  of  Hispaniola, 
that  he  appeared  and  spoke  to  them  in  various  shapes, 
driving  them,  deceived  and  blind,  to  diabolical  worship. 
He  likewise  appeared  to  the  people  of  Yucatan,  espe- 
cially in  Acuzamil  and  Xicalanco,  where  he  required 
human  sacrifices  to  be  offered  to  him.^     We  have  no 


Peru, 


^  Irving,  Vida  y  Viajes,  lib.  vi. 
cap.  X.  p.  475. 

'■•  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  B. 
de  las  Casae,  t.  Ixvi.  p.  459. 

»  P.  722. 


*  Lescarbot,  liv.  vi.  ch.  v.  p.  727 ; 
cf.  Brownell,  p.  26. 

''  Herrera,  lib.  iii.  cap.  iv.,  liv.  ; 
Van  Speybrouck,  bl.  109. 


L 

ii 

f 

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*  . 

f 

i 

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I 

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f  , 

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■ 

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1 

1 

1 

kk 

260       HI8T0RY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

information  as  to  the  special  rites  of  this  unmixed  and 
direct  devil-worship,  but  only  know  that  it  mainly  took 
place  in  the  midst  of  orgies  of  licentiousness  and  drunk- 
enness/ Nor  was  this  particular  feature  exclusively 
proper  to  downright  devil-worship;  it  often  accompanied 
or  concluded  the  ceremonies  of  sorcerers'  liturgy,  which, 
in  California,  generally  ended,  says  Father  Venegas,  in 
the  most  abominable  gratification  of  appetites  and  pas- 
sions, in  which  all  seemed  to  be  determined  to  violate 
every  principle  of  modesty,  reason,  and  shame.^  Such 
is  yet  and  will  ever  be  the  characteristic  trait  of  devil- 
worship,  whether  in  the  wilds  of  Africa  or  in  the  dark- 
ened halls  of  o'lr  cities.  It  always  was  the  devil's  aim 
to  replace  in  man  the  image  of  God  with  the  caricature 
of  the  brute. 

As  a  consequence,  we  should  not  wonder  if  ebriety 
was  a  common  vice  in  ancient  America.  It  would  be 
a  tedious  and  loathsome  labor  to  describe  the  drunken 
habits  of  the  various  tribes  ;  and  the  craving  appetite 
for  "  fire-water"  of  the  aborigines'  modern  descendants 
in  every  part  of  our  hemisphere  sufficiently  vouches  for 
the  truth  of  the  assertion.  It  may  suffice,  therefore,  to 
cast  a  glance  at  the  intemperance  of  those  nations,  whom 
their  high  degree  of  culture  should  have  saved  from  the 
disgrace. 

The  Mayas  of  Central  America  were  a  civilized 
people ;  yet,  according  to  Landa,  who  is  the  best 
authority  concerning  the  religious  festivals  of  the  Yu- 
catecs,  every  religious  fast  was  compensated  by  religious 
drunken  carousals.  In  the  month  of  Zac  a  great  feast 
was  Leld,  which  lasted  three  days  and  was  attended 
with   iiiConse- burning,  bloody  sacrifices,  and   general 


^  Colecc.on  de  Documentos,  t. 
liii.  p.  321 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  361, 
n.  22. 


'  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  134. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    ^N   ANCIENT   AMERICA.      261 


orgies.  In  the  month  of  Mac  the  solemnities  in  honor 
of  the  gods  of  the  cornfields  ended  by  eating  and 
drinking  and  making  merry.  In  the  month  of  Muan, 
however,  at  the  feast  of  the  cacao-planters,  no  one  was 
allowed  to  drink  more  than  three  glasses  of  wine  about 
the  temple ;  but  the  worshippers  made  up  for  the  re- 
striction at  the  house  of  the  man  who  had  given  the 
feast.  In  the  month  of  Pax  a  religious  feast  was  held 
by  the  noWes  and  the  priests  of  the  country,  where  the 
Nacon  or  general  of  their  armies  was  specially  honored, 
and  lasted  several  days.  The  ceremonies  were  concluded 
with  a  grand  banquet,  at  which  all  got  drunk  except 
the  Nacon.  The  following  morning  the  general  made 
a  speech  to  his  noble  officers,  recommending  to  them  to 
faithfully  observe  in  town  and  country  the  feasts  of  the 
gods.  This  they  did ;  for,  coming  home,  they  com- 
menced a  three  months'  celebration  with  the  people 
of  their  respective  places.  All  through  these  three 
months  the  excesses  in  which  the  people  indulged  were 
pitiful  to  see :  cuts,  bruises,  and  eyes  inflamed  with 
drink  were  plentiful  among  them ;  to  gratify  their 
passion  for  drink  they  cast  themselves  away.  The  first 
day  of  the  month  of  Pop,  the  Maya  New  Year's  day, 
was  an  occasion  of  rejoicing,  in  which  all  the  nation 
took  part,  and  whose  long  ceremonies  terminated  by 
inevitable  banquets  and  orgies.  In  the  month  of  Zip 
the  feast  of  the  hunters  and  fishers  was  celebrated  in  a 
similar  manner  ;  and,  on  another  occasion,  the  hunters, 
with  their  wives,  did  special  honor  to  their  particular 
gods,  with  religious  oblations  and  dances,  during  which 
all  present,  priests  and  others,  became,  to  quote  the 
words  of  Bishop  Landa,  "  as  drunk  as  baskets."  ^  We 
might  continue  to  read  about  the  festivities  of  the  Mayas, 
but  the  finale  is  invariably  the  same. 

»  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  690-711. 


i  1, 1 
'li 


V. 


li 


262       HISTOEY   OF   AMEKICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  Aztecs  of  Mexico  were  another  powerful  nation 
of  advanced  culture.  The  charitable  Mendieta  speaks 
of  the  people  as  very  temperate  ;  ^  and  so  also  Torque- 
mada,  Clavigero,  and  Camargo.'^  Motolinia,  however, 
and  other  good  authorities  take  an  opposite  view  of  the 
native  character  in  this  respect.  Giocch.  Garcias  Icaz- 
balceta,  a  learned  writer  of  aboriginal  descent,  relates ' 
a  statement  of  Motolinia,  who  says  the  Aztecs  drink  so 
excessively  that  they  do  not  stop  till  they  fall  like  dead 
of  sheer  drunkenness,  and  they  glory  in  drinking  much 
and  in  getting  drunk.  A  fact  which  ought  to  settle  the 
question  is,  that  the  Mexicans  had  several  tutelary  divin- 
ities of  drinkers  and  drunkards,  which  they  solemnly 
worshipped.  During  the  month  called  Tepeilhuitl  the 
Mexican  Bacchus  was  especially  honored  with  the 
slaughter  of  human  beings  ;  and  during  the  month  fol- 
lowing there  were  ceremonies  again  in  honor  of  the 
god  of  wine,  during  which  sacrifices  of  male  and  of 
female  slaves  were  offered  by  the  liquor  dealers.* 

Their  dead-letter  laws  enacted  against  drunkenness 
and  the  excessive  severity  of  these  are  other  proofs  of 
the  prevalence  of  the  vice,  which  was  the  consuming 
canker  of  their  race  as  well  as  of  other  Indian  tribes  in 
later  days.  It  was  punished  in  the  young  with  death, 
and  in  older  persons  with  loss  of  rank  and  confiscation 
of  property ;  ®  and  yet,  at  the  end  of  their  festive  re- 
pasts, the  older  guests  continued  at  table,  sipping  the 
intoxicating  liquor  called  "  pulque,"  and  gossiping  about 
olden  times,  till  the  virtues  of  the  exhilarating  beverage 
put  them  in  good  humor  with  their  own."  An  eye- 
witness writes  in  A.D.   1763:  "Drunkenness  is  not  so 


»  Hist.  Eccles.,  pp.  138-140. 
*  Ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mex- 
ico, vol.  i.  p.  38,  n.  18. 
'  Colecc.  de  Docum.,  t.  i.  p.  32. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  334,  335. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of   Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  37. 

•Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  139. 


^  I 


IMMOEALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      263 

bad  among  the  nations  of  Sonora  as  among  others  that 
we  hear  of.  The  Pimas,  particularly  those  of  the 
mountains,  are  still  addicted  to  the  habit.  The  wine 
or  drink,  with  which  they  become  intoxicated,  is  made 
out  of  maize,  the  maguey  called  mezcal,  wheat,  Indian 
fig,  and  other  things ;  but  the  worst  of  all  is  made  of 
the  alder  tree,  because  its  effect  lasts  for  several  days."  ^ 
"  In  their  carousals  and  conventicles  they  follow  their 
whims  unrestrained."  "^  The  Peruvians,  says  Prescott,^ 
were,  like  the  Aztecs,  immoderately  addicted  to  an  in- 
toxicating liquor  made  from  fermented  maize,  one  kind 
of  which,  the  '*  sora,"  was  of  such  strength  that  its  use 
was  forbidden  by  the  Incas,  at  least  to  the  common 
people. 

We  are  well  aware  that  no  government  nor  religion 
can  be  impeached  if  some  individuals  transgress  its 
laws  of  peace  and  morality,  but  when  we  see  whole 
nations  with  their  leaders  given  to  vice,  when  we  see 
so-called  religions  teach  and  sanction  immorality,  we 
cannot  but  condemn  such  nations  to  destruction,  and 
declare  such  religions  to  have  been  originated  by  the 
infernal  enemy  of  mankind.  Such  was  the  case  in 
regard  to  the  sin  of  ebriety  in  ancient  America. 

Were  we  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  another  vice,  more 
heinous  yet  and  more  degrading  than  drunkenness, — 
namely,  lewdness, — is  an  unavoidable  consequence  of 
false  religions  and  an  inseparable  companion  of  devil- 
worship,  the  principle  of  St.  Jerome,  saying  that  he 
will  never  believe  a  drunkard  to  be  chaste,*  would 
direct  us  to  look  for  revolting  unchastity  among  the 
inebriate  aborigines  of  our  continent.     Dancing  and 


*  Rudo  Ensayo,  MS.  transl.  in 
Records  of  the  American  Catholic 
Historical  Society,  vol.  v.  p.  174, 

"  Ibid.,  p.  175. 


'  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p. 
139. 

*  Super  Epist.  ad  Titum,  cap.  i. 
in  illud  :  "  Non  vinolentum." 


m 

''HHI 

1 

HH^H 

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II 

f  1 

■     B  ' 

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jv '    »« 


264       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

drinking  were  the  favorite  pastimes  of  the  Peruvians. 
Like  the  slaves  and  serfs  of  other  lands,  whose  posi- 
tion excluded  them  from  more  serious  and  ennobling 
occupations,  they  found  a  substitute  in  frivolous  and 
sensual  indulgence.  Lazy,  luxurious,  and  licentious 
are  the  epithets  bestowed  on  them  by  one  of  those 
who  saw  them  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest.^ 
Oviedo'^  asserts,  in  general,  that  the  morals  of  the 
Indians  were  abominable,  worse  than  brutal,  shame 
being  unknown ;  Herrera,^  that  the  Indians  of  His- 
paniola  were  very  immoral ;  and  we  all  know  the 
moral  plague  of  both  contemporaneous  and  successive 
polygamy  among  our  native  tribes.  Kinship  through 
females  only  was  the  rule  in  aboriginal  America.  In- 
dissoluble marriage,  whether  monogamous  or  polyga- 
mous, seems  to  have  been  unknown.  The  marriage 
relation  was  terminable  at  the  will  of  either  party. 
In  fact,  marriage  among  the  Indians  seems  to  have 
been  but  the  natural  mating  of  the  sexes.* 

Orgies  characterized  by  the  grossest  licentiousness 
were  met  with  at  different  places  along  the  Pacific 
coast,  as  among  the  Nootkas,  the  Upper  and  Lower 
Californians,  in  Sinaloa,  Nicaragua,  and  especially  in 
Yucatan,  where  every  festival  ended  in  a  debauch. 

"  To  the  honor  of  the  Flatheads,  who  live  on  the 


'  "  Heran  niuy  dados  il  la  lujuria 
y  al  bever ;  tenian  acceso  carnal 
con  las  hermanaa  y  las  mugeres  de 
BUS  padres,  conio  no  fuesen  sus 
mismaa  madres,  y  aun  algiinos 
avia  que  con  ellas  niismas  lo  hacian 
y  ansi  misnio  con  sus  hijas.  Es- 
tando  borrachos  tocavan  algunos 
en  el  pecado  nefando ;  emborra- 
chavanse  nuiy  a  menudo,  y  estando 
borrachos,  todo  lo  que  el  denionio 
les  traia  tl  la  voluntad  hacian.  .  .  . 
Tenian    otras    nmchaa     inaldades 


que  por  ser  muchas,  no  las  digo." 
(P/escott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i. 
pp.  107,  173,  ref.  to  Pedro  Pizarro, 
Descub.  y  Conq.,  MS.,  whom  he 
thinks  to  be  rather  severe. ) 

'  Lib.  V.  cap.  iii.  fo.  xlviii. 

'  Dec.  i.  lib.  iii.  cap.  iv.  p.  88. 

*  Fiske,  vol.  i.  p.  (54 ;  Clay  Mc- 
Cauley,  The  Seminole  Indians  of 
Florida,  in  Fifth  Annual  Report  of 
the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Wash- 
ington, 1887,  p.  497. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      265 


the 


west  side  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  extend  some  dis- 
tance down  the  Columbia,  we  must  mention  them  as 
exceptions,  as  they  did  not  exhibit  those  loose  feelings  of 
carnal  desire,  nor  appear  addicted  to  the  common  cus- 
toms of  prostitution  ;  and  they  were  the  only  nation  on 
the  whole  route  (from  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  to  the  Pacific 
Ocean)  where  anything  like  chastity  was  regarded."  ^ 
A  contemporary  writer  states  that  "  in  the  uprising  of 
the  Pimas  [of  Sonora  in  a.d.  1751]  the  marriages  which 
had  been  abolished  and  which  even  in  their  own  lan- 
guage were  called  diabro-buhuturss,  meaning  marriages 
by  the  devil,  were  re-established ;  the  most  powerful 
stealing  by  force  from  the  helpless  the  wives  they  had 
legitimately  married  in  the  church.  The  ceremonies  of 
their  heathenish  weddings  are  not  fit  to  be  described  in 
detail ;  I  shall  only  mention  the  more  decent.  They 
gather  together,  old  and  young,  and  the  young  men  and 
marriageable  women  are  placed  in  two  files.  At  a  given 
signal  the  latter  begin  to  run,  and  at  another  signal  the 
former  follow  them.  When  the  young  men  overtake 
the  young  women,  each  one  must  take  his  mate  by  the 
left  nipple  and  the  marriage  is  made  and  confirmed. 
After  this  preliminary  ceremony  they  devote  them- 
selves to  dancing,  and  I  remember  to  have  heard,  brides 
as  well  as  bridegrooms  dance  in  the  costume  of  primi- 
tive innocence.  Then  all  at  once  they  take  mats  of 
palm-tree  leaves,  which  are  prepared  beforehand,  and 
without  further  ceremony  each  couple  is  placed  on  a 
mat,  and  the  rest  of  the  people  go  on  rejoicing  with 
songs  and  dances  until  break  of  day."  ^ 

During  a  certain  annual  festival  held  in  Nicaragua, 


>  GasB,  A  Journal,  pp.  189,  190. 
Patrick  Gass  was  a  member  of 
the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition  of 
1804-1806. 


"  Rudo  Ensayo,  of  1763,  trans- 
lated in  "  Records  of  the  American 
Catholic  Historical  Society,"  vol.  v. 
p.  175. 


f 


:l 


t 


266       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

women  of  whatever  condition  could  commit  crime  with 
any  one,  without  incurring  any  disgrace.  All  these 
carousals,  indulged  in  during  or  immediately  after  the 
great  religious  feasts,  are  evident  indications  of  the 
public,  thorough,  and  utter  immorality  which  prevailed 
throughout  the  race.^  Public  prostitution,  more  com- 
mon than  in  our  time,  was  tolerated  if  not  encouraged 
all  over  Central  America.  Parents  could  expose  their 
daughters  to  vice  without  any  shame,  and  it  was  no 
unusual  thing  that  the  poor  creatures  of  the  lower 
classes  were  thus  sent  on  a  tour  through  the  land  to 
earn  a  criminal  marriage  portion.^ 

Divorce  was  granted  on  as  trivial  grounds  as  it  is 
to-day,  and  adulterous  concubinage  was  more  frequent 
than  it  is  in  our  large  cities.  Decency  prevents  us 
from  speaking  of  the  unnatural  vices  of  the  Maya 
nations, — vices,  it  is  said,  introduced  and  excused  by 
one  of  their  gods,  or  one  of  their  demons,  as  Las  Casas 
accurately  calls  him.^ 

Not  only  in  Yucatan,  but  in  Mexico  also,  did  idolatry 
and  devil-worship  introduce  and  foster  the  vice  of  im- 
purity. Tezcatlipoca,  the  chief  god  of  the  Nahuas,  was 
adored  as  a  love-god  according  to  Boturini,  who  adds 
that  the  Nahua  Lotharios  held  disorderly  festivals  in 
his  honor  to  induce  him  to  favor  their  designs.*  In 
Tlascala  and  the  neighboring  republics  the  month  of 
QuechoUi  was  the  "  month  of  love,"  and  great  numbers 
of  young  girls  were  sacrificed  to  their  three  goddesses 
of  sensual  delights.      Among  the  victims  were  many 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  507,  508, 
n.  132,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  676,  ref.  to 
Mr.  Brinton  and  divers  ancient 
authors. 

•  Oviedo,  t.  i.  pp.  252,  316 ;  t.  iv. 
pp.  37,  51 ;  Gomara,  Hist.  Ind.,  fo. 
233,  seq. ;  Herrera,  dec.  iii.  lib.  iv. 


cap.  vii.  ;  Miiller,  Amerikanische 
Urreligionen,  S.  663,  as  ref.  to  by 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  676,  n.  55,  56. 

»  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  871-677. 

*  Boturini,  Idea,  p.  13,  quoted 
by  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  507. 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      267 

fallen  women,  who  voluntarily  offered  themselves  to 
die  in  the  temple  from  pure  religious  fervor,  not  from 
remorse  or  repentance,  as  no  particular  disgrace  was 
attached  to  a  life  of  prostitution.  Unnatural  vice, 
forbidden  in  some  parts  of  Montezuma's  empire  and 
tolerated  in  others,  was  during  this  month  allowed  to 
exhibit  itself  on  the  public  streets. 

To  make  short  the  history  of  this  empire's  corrup- 
tion, we  will  finish  by  leaving  the  reader  to  judge  for 
himself  how  deleterious  must  have  been  upon  the 
people  the  shameful  scandal  given  them  by  their 
governors  and  emperors  themselves.  The  emperor  of 
Mexico  at  the  time  of  the  conquest  was  keeping  about 
him  more  than  a  thousand  women,  and  this  number 
is  increased  by  most  historians  to  three  thousand,  and 
by  Oviedo  to  four  thousand,  including  the  female 
attendants  and  slaves.  Of  these,  we  are  told  on  good 
authority,  one  hundred  and  fifty  were  at  times  the 
burdened  victims  of  Montezuma's  profligacy,  and  every 
adulteress  became  a  murderess  before  her  offspring 
was  born,^  Nor  should  we  be  astonished  at  the  un- 
natural cruelty  of  Montezuma's  concubines  when  we 
know  that  out  of  the  hundred  and  fifty  of  his  father's 
children,  Montezuma  himself,  on  ascending  the  throne, 
had  put  to  death  most  of  his  brothers,  and  made  pres- 
ents of  his  sisters  to  whom  he  pleased.^     Immorality 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  182,  ref.  to 
Torquemada,  Monarq.  Ind.,  t.  i. 
p.  230;  Gomara,  Conq.  Mex.,  fo. 
107 ;  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  vii.  cap. 
ix.  ;  Bernal  Diaz,  Hist.  Conq.,  fo. 
67 ;  West  Indische  Spieghel,  bl. 
246 ;  Oviedo,  t.  iii.  p.  505. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  183  ;  "  Tenia 
Montezuma  una  casa  mui  grande  en 
que  estaban  bus  mugeres,  que  eran 
mas  de  40']0  hijas  de  sefiores,  que 


86  las  daban  para  ser  sua  mugeres, 
4  el  lo  mandaba  hacer  asf ;  6  las 
t«nia  mui  guardadas  y  servidas ;  y 
algunas  veces  41  daba  algunas  del  las 
d  quien  queria  favorecer  y  honrar 
de  sus  principales.  Ellos  las  reci- 
bian  como  un  don  grandisimo.  .  .  . 
Tuvo  su  padre  de  Montezuma  150 
hijos  <5  hijas,  de  los  quales  los  mas 
mat6  Montezuma,  y  las  hermanas 
cas6  muchas  del  las  con   quien  le 


r^^^^^B^ 


268       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE 


IBUS. 


-^ 


at  the  royal  court  of  Tezcuco  w  less  enormous 

than  it  was  in  the  palace  of  Monte»  -la.^  Among  the 
highly  praised  virtues  of  Nezahualpilli,  who  died  in 
the  year  1515,  we  must,  doubtless,  according  to  the 
prevailing  standard,  count  his  taking  at  once  three 
Mexican  princesses  for  wives,  and  his  keeping  a  harem 
of  over  two  thousand  women,  if  we  may  believe  his 
lineal  descendant,  the  historian  Ixtlilxochitl.^ 

As  it  is  but  natural,  the  example  of  the  kings  was 
followed  by  the  princes,  who  also  used  to  entertain  a 
great  number  of  concubines.^ 

Similar  statements  of  dissoluteness  are  made  in  re- 
gard to  the  cultured  kingdom  of  the  Incas  of  Peru, 
where  the  remains  of  ancient  art  are  decidedly  obscene.* 
The  Inca,  considered  as  a  god  by  his  people,  not  only 
availed  himself  of  the  right  of  polygamy  to  a  very  lib- 
eral extent,  but  gave  the  revolting  example  of  incest  by 
choosing  one  of  his  own  sisters  for  a  wife.^ 

We  have  no  special  evidence  to  assert  that  the  Peru- 
vians were  as  cruel  as  the  Mexicans  towards  their  un- 
born progeny ;  but,  if  murder  is  used  to  walk  in  the 
footsteps  of  lewdness,  we  may  well  infer  that  the  means 
of  abortion  were  known  and  applied  in  Peru,  as  they 
were  in  most  parts  of  the  American  continent,  and  par- 
ticularly in  the  Antilles,  where  the  native  mothers  con- 
spired to  deny  their  Spanish  masters  any  more  servants. 


pareci6 ,  y  6\  tubo  50  hijos  y  hijjis, 
6  mas ;  y  acaecio  alguntis  veces 
tener  50  mugeres  prefiadaa,  y  las 
mas  dellas  mataban  las  criaturas 
en  el  cuerpo,  porque  asf  dicen  que 
se  lo  mandaba  el  Diablo,  que  ha- 
blaba  con  elhw,  y  decfales  que  se 
sacrificasen  ellas  las  orejas  y  las 
lenguas  y  sus  naturas,  6  se  sacasen 
mucha  sangre  &  se  la  ofreciesen,  6 
asf  lo  hacian  en  efeto.  (Oviedo, 
Hist,  de  laf  Ind.,  MS.,  lib.  xxxiii. 


cap.   xlvi.,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  436. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  179. 

'  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  148  ;  Nadaillac, 
Prehistoric  America,  p.  289. 

'  Zurita,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  186. 

*  Brinton,  Myths,  p.  149,  quoted 
by  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  508,  n.  132. 

'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  19,  35. 


IMMORALITY   AND   MISERY   IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA.      269 


by  refusing  to  their  offspring  the  right  of  seeing  the 
light  of  day.^ 

If,  perhaps,  the  educated  mothers  of  Peru  avoided  the 
danger  of  suicide  by  allowing  their  infants  to  be  born 
alive,  it  is  a  well-established  fact  that  many  a  Peruvian 
parent  became  guilty  of  a  barbarity  greater  still.  The 
royal  Prophet  writes  of  the  Jews  perverted  by  their 
idolatrous  neighbors  :  "  They  served  their  idols ;  and 
they  sacrificed  their  sons  and  their  daughters  to  devils ; 
and  they  shed  innocent  blood  :  the  blood  of  their  sons 
and  of  their  daughters,  whom  they  sacrificed  to  the  idols 
,  of  Canaan  ;  and  the  land  was  polluted  with  blood,  and 
was  defiled  with  their  works,  and  they  went  a  whoring 
with  their  own  inventions.  And  the  Lord  was  exceed- 
ingly angry  with  his  people,  and  he  abhored  their  in- 
heritance, and  he  delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  the 
nations,  and  they  that  hated  them  had  dominion  over 
them."  ^     Such  is  the  history  of  Peru  and  of  Mexico. 

We  all  sufficiently  know  that  the  devil  tries,  above 
all,  to  deprive  man,  the  favorite  creature  of  God,  of 
spiritual  and  eternal  life ;  but  it  is  not  sufficiently 
noticed  that,  wherever  his  dominion  is  admitted,  he 
hates  us  enough,  for  God's  sake,  to  try  and  deprive  us 
also  of  temporal  life.  The  infernal  tyrant  ruled  Amer- 
ica at  the  time  of  Columbus's  discovery  and  spared  no 
human  lives.  Civilized  Peru  paid  him  a  heavy  tribute 
of  blood. 

The  Inca  Garcillasso  de  la  Vega  tells  us  ^  that  the 
ancient  Peruvians  killed  men  to  honor  their  idols ;  but, 
he  says,  the  Incas  offered  no  human  sacrifices.  This 
pardonable  assertion  of  the  native  nobleman  is,  however, 
contradicted  by  all  other  historians.  Bastian*  admits 
that  the  Peruvian  kings  may  have  lessened  the  number 


1  Peschel,  S.  431. 
» Psalm  cv.  3&-il. 


'  Comentarios,  cap.  xi.  p.  13. 
*  Bd.  i.  S.  453. 


qggi! 


i' 


'^ 


II 


( I 


*  i 


; ! 


270       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

of  religious  murders,  but  there  is  sufficient  evidence,  he 
says,  that  they  did  not  abolish  them.  Lescarbot  and  von 
Humboldt  ^  relate  the  fact  of  human  sacrifices  in  cul- 
tured Peru ;  and  an  ancient  reliable  historian  who  was 
in  that  country  a  long  time,  Acosta,  writes  as  follows :  ^ 
"  Whenas  the  Peruvian  king  Huayna  Ceapac  died 
(who  was  father  to  Atahualpa,  at  what  time  the  Span- 
iards entered),  they  put  to  death  above  a  thousand  per- 
sons of  all  ages  and  conditions  for  his  service,  to  accom- 
pany him  in  the  other  life.^  After  many  songs  and 
drunkenness,  they  slew  them  ;  and  these  that  were  ap- 
pointed to  death  held  themselves  happy.  They  did  sacri- 
fice many  things  unto  them,  especTaTIy  young  children  ; 
and  with  the  blood  they  made  a  stroke  on  the  dead 
man's  face,  from  one  ear  to  the  other."  He  adds :  * 
"  In  Peru  they  sacrificed  men  whom  they  thought  to  be 
agreeable  to  the  Sun.  Besides  this,  they  used  to  sacri- 
fice young  children  of  foure  or  six  yeares  old  unto 
tenne ;  and  the  greatest  part  of  these  sacrifices  were  for 
the  afiaires  that  import  the  Inca,  as  in  sickness  for  his 
health,  and  when  he  went  to  the  warres  for  victory  ;  or 
when  they  gave  the  wreathe  to  their  new  Inca.  In 
this  solemnitie  they  sacrificed  the  number  of  two  hun- 
dred children,  from  four  to  ten  years  of  age :  which  was 
a  cruel  and  inhuman  spectacle.  The  manner  of  the  sac- 
rifice was  to  drawne  them  and  bury  them  with  certaine 
representations  and  ceremonies ;  sometimes  they  cutte  off 
their  heads,  annointing  themselves  with  the  blood  from 
one  eare  to  another.  They  did  likewise  sacrifice  vir- 
gines,  some  of  them  that  were  brought  to  the  Ynca  from 
the  monasteries.    In  this  case  there  was  a  very  great  and 


1  Vues,  t.  i.  p.  268. 
«  Bk.  V.  ch.  vii.  p.  313. 
*  Cf.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru, 
vol.  i.   p.  340,  ref.   to  Sarmiento, 


Relacion,  MS.,  cap.  Ixv.,  and  Her- 
rera.    Hist.   Gen.,  dec.  v.  lib.  iii. 
cap.  xvii. 
*  Bk.  V.  ch.  xix.  p.  344, 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      271 


.  2 


general  abuse."  The  age  of  fifteen  years  was  the  fatal 
epoch  for  hundreds  of  these  bright,  well-educated  maid- 
ens to  be  slaughtered  in  honor  of  their  idols,  when  not 
to  be  sacrificed  to  the  passions  of  the  princes.^ 

Similar  evidence  is  given  by  Molina,  Cieza  de  Leon, 
Montesinos,  Balboa,  Ondegardo.  Cieza  observes,  how- 
ever, that  the  numbers  of  human  victims  and  the  fre- 
quency of  such  offerings  have  been  exaggerated  by  the 
Spaniards.'' 

Prescott  states  that  sacrifices  among  the  Peruvians 
consisted  of  animals,  grain,  flowers,  and  sweet-scented 
gums,  sometimes  of  human  beings ;  on  which  occasions 
a  child  or  a  beautiful  maiden  was  usually  selected  as 
the  victim.  But,  he  says,  such  sacrifices  were  rare, 
being  reserved  to  celebrate  some  great  public  event,  as 
a  coronation,  the  birth  of  a  royal  heir,  or  a  great  vic- 
tory. Indeed,  the  conquests  of  the  Incas  might  well  be 
deemed  a  blessing  to  the  Indian  nations,  if  it  were  only 
for  the  diminution  of  human  sacrifices,  although  their 
death  was  a  curse  in  this  regard ;  for,  at  their  burial,  a 
number  of  attendants  and  favorite  concubines,  amount- 
ing sometimes,  it  is  said,  to  a  thousand,  were  immolated 
on  their  tomb.  Four  thousand  of  these  victims,  ac- 
cording to  Sarmiento,  graced  the  funeral  obsequies  of 
Huayna  Capac,  the  last  of  the  Incas  before  the  coming 
of  the  Spaniards.  The  burials  of  the  deceased  noble- 
men were  likewise  completed  by  the  sacrifice  of  their 
wives  and  principal  domestics,  who  were  to  bear  them 
company  and  do  them  service  in  the  happy  regions 
beyond  the  clouds.^ 

"  Although  they  of  Peru,"  says  Acosta,  **  have  sur- 
passed the  Mexicaines  in  the  slaughter  and  sacrifice  of 


•  Payne,  p.  564 ;    Acosta,  bk.  v. 
ch.  XV.  p.  332 ;  Aa.  passim. 
=•  Winaor,  vol.  i.  p.  237. 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  32,  90,  105. 


272       HIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    llEFOKE    COLUMBUS. 


If  J   :f' 


their  children,  yet  they  of  Mexico  have  exceeded  them, 
yea,  all  the  nations  of  the  worlde,  in  the  grejtt  number 
of  men  which  they  had  sacrificed,  and  the  horrible 
manner  thereof."  ^  Nor  did  the  Mexicans  abstain  from 
sacrificing  small  children  also.  During  the  first  days 
of  each  year  a  feast  was  celebrated  in  honor  of  the  gods 
of  rain  and  water,  at  which  a  great  number  of  suckling 
infants  were  immolated.  The  little  ones  were  mostly 
bought  from  their  mothers,  though  sometimes  they  were 
voluntarily  presented  by  parents  who  wished  to  gain 
the  particular  favor  of  the  gods.  The  sacrifices  were 
made  upon  six  different  mountains  and  in  the  lake  of 
Mexico.  These  places  were  visited  one  after  another 
by  a  great  procession  of  priests,  followed  by  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  people  thirsting  after  the  sight  of  blood  and, 
according  to  several  authors,  hungering  after  the  flesh  of 
the  babes.  The  innocent  victims  were  carried  to  their 
death  upon  gorgeous  litters,  adorned  with  plumes  and 
jewels.  No  wonder  that,  as  the  old  chroniclers  say,  the 
people  wept  as  the  doomed  infants  passed  by.  They  all 
were  butchered  or  drowned.^ 

At  another  feast  of  the  same  gods  several  little  boys 
were  shut  up  in  a  cavern  and  left  to  die  of  fear  and 
hunger.^ 

The  Zapotec  tribe  sacrificed  children  to  their  inferior 
deities,  men  to  their  gods,  and  women  to  their  goddesses.* 

Women  were  also  butchered  :~\  honor  of  the  female 
idols  of  Mexico  on  several  occasions.  Some  were  be- 
headed and  their  hearts  were  torn  out,  while  hanging 
from  the  back  of  a  stooping  priest,  and  others  were  cast 
upon  the  sacrificial  stone,  where  the  religious  butcher 


»  Bk.  V.  ch.  XX.  p.  346. 
*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  81 ;  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric 


America,  p.  293 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii. 
p.  305  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  332. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  308. 

*  Ibid. 


IMMORALITY    AND   MISERY    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA.     273 


^sses. 
;male 
le  be- 
iging 
cast 
[tcher 

IyoI.  ii. 


cut  open  their  breasts,  pressing  a  stick  or  a  swordfish- 
bone  against  their  throats  to  prevent  tliera  from  scream- 
ing.' 

At  the  feast  of  the  merchants  a  number  of  slaves, 
bought  and  fattened  for  the  purpose,  were  slain  and 
eaten.'^  On  other  occasions  slaves  and  criminals  were 
to  fill  the  required  number  of  victims,  whenever  there 
would  be  any  deficiency  of  prisoners  of  war.  These, 
however,  to  wit,  captives,  taken  on  the  battle-field, 
formed  the  ordinary  supply  of  miserable  beings  that 
were  sacrificed  to  the  hatred  of  the  devils  and  to  the 
cruelty  of  their  heartless  worshippers,  and  rarely  did  the 
supply  fail  to  be  sufiicient  for  the  occasion.  Indeed, 
war  on  the  neighboring  tribes  was  instigated  by  the 
Aztec  priests  and  carried  on  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
fp.liiug  alive  innocent  people  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  idols.' 
Duran  devotes  a  whole  chapter  to  the  description  of 
Montezuma's  council  with  the  grandees  of  his  empire, 
in  regard  to  constant  wars,  whose  object  it  was  to  exer- 
cise the  youthful  nobility  and  to  capture  victims  for  the 
religious  festivities,*  if,  forsooth,  we  are  allowed  to  call 
festivities  the  horrible  massacres  of  which  they  mainly 
consisted.  In  fact,  there  was  no  feast,  no  religious  so- 
lemnity in  Mexico,  without  the  shedding  of  human 
blood  and  the  taking  of  human  life  under  tlie  most 
atrocious  and  truly  diabolical  circumstances. 

The  greatest  number  both  of  male  and  of  female  vic- 
tims were  slain  with  the  knife.  The  usual  ministers  of 
the  sacrifice  were  six  servants  of  the  "  murderer  from 


1  Bancroft,  vo\  ii.  p.  326. 

*  Ibid.,  '    ^d4,  seq. 

"  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxi.  p.  351. 

*  Duran,  t.  i.  The  Capitulo 
XXIX.  is  entitled:  "Del  consejo 
que  86  tuvo  entre  el  rey  Monte- 
zuma I.  y  8U8  grandes,  sobre  la 

I.— 18 


perpetua  guerra  que  contra  Tlax- 
cala,  Vescotzinco  y  Cholula,  At- 
lixco  y  Tecoac  y  contra  Tliliuhqui- 
tepec  se  a  via  de  tener,  para  traer 
Indios  al  sacrificio  en  las  soleni- 
dades,  y  para  exercitarse  los  hijos 
de  grandes." 


-'5'J« 


I  i 


274       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBIJH. 

the  beginning,"  called  priests.  When  the  victim  had 
been  carried  naked,  or  driven  gayly  attired,  up  to  the 
temple,  they  seized  him  and  threw  him  prostrate  on  his 
back  upon  the  altar,  two  holding  his  legs,  two  his  feet, 
and  the  fifth  his  head ;  the  high  priest  then  approached, 
cut  open  the  wretch's  breast  with  a  heavy  knife  of  oo- 
sidian,  and,  with  a  dexterity  acquired  by  frequent  pi-ac- 
tice,  tore  forth  the  yet  palpitating  heart,  which  he  first 
offered  to  the  sun,  and  then  threw  at  the  foot  of  the 
idol ;  taking  it  up,  he  again  offered  it  to  the  god,  and 
finally  burned  it,  preserving  the  ashes  with  great  care 
and  veneration.  Sometimes  the  heart  was  placed  with 
a  golden  spoon  in  the  mouth  of  the  idol.  If  the  victim 
was  a  prisoner  of  war,  as  soon  as  he  was  sacrificed  they 
cut  off  the  head  to  preserve  the  skull,  and  then  threw 
the  body  down  the  temple  steps  for  other  savage  pur- 
poses.^ 

At  the  feast  of  Xipe,  the  patron  deity  of  the  gold- 
smiths, the  corpses  of  the  victims  were  flayed,  and  the 
skins  were  given  to  certain  priests  or  college  youths, 
who  went  from  house  to  house,  dressed  in  the  ghastly 
garbs,  with  the  arras  dangling,  singing,  dancing,  and 
asking  for  contributions  !  Could  any  but  an  infernal 
fiend  sink  man  into  such  infamy  ?  ^ 

A  body  of  forty-five  Spaniards,  mostly  invalids,  igno- 
rant of  Cortes's  disasters  in  Mexico,  were  transporting 
thither  a  large  quantity  of  gold  at  the  very  time  that 
their  countrymen  were  on  the  retreat  to  Tlascala.  As 
they  passed  through  the  Tezcucan  territory  they  were 
attacked  and  most  of  them  massacred  on  the  spot,  and 
the  rest  sent  for  sacrifice  to  Mexico.  The  arms  and 
accoutrements  of  these  unfortunate  men  were  hung  up 

'  Duran,  t.   i.  p.  484 ;   Bancroft,     Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  79 ; 
vol.  ii.  p.  307 ;   Nadaillac,  Prehis-     Aa.  passim, 
toric    America,    p.    293  ;   Prescott,         '  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  311 ;  alii. 


ik;io.i»»feaj..»t-.i'te»w.>-:: 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      275 

as  trophies  in  the  temples,  and  their  skins,  stripped 
from  their  bodies,  were  suspended  over  the  bloody 
shrines,  as  the  most  acceptable  offering  to  the  offended 
deities,^ 

Prescott  describes  one  of  the  Aztec  sacrifices  wit- 
nessed by  the  Spaniards  besieging  the  Mexican  capital : 
It  was  towards  evening ;  the  tranquillity  of  the  hour 
was  suddenly  broken  by  the  strange  sounds  of  the  great 
drum  in  the  temple  of  the  war-god.  The  Spaniards 
turned  their  eyes  to  the  quarter  whence  the  noise  pro- 
ceeded ;  they  there  beheld  a  long  procession  winding 
up  the  huge  sides  of  the  pyramid,  for  the  camp  of  the 
Spanish  captain,  Alvarado,  was  pitched  scarcely  a  mile 
from  the  city,  and  objects  are  distinctly  visible  at  a  great 
distance  in  the  transparent  atmosphere  of  the  table-land 
of  Anahuac. 

As  the  long  file  of  priests  and  warriors  reached  the 
flat  summit  of  the  "  teocalli"  the  Spaniards  saw  the 
figures  of  several  men  stripped  to  their  waists;  some  of 
whom,  by  the  whiteness  of  their  skins,  they  recognized 
as  their  own  countrymen.  They  were  the  victims  for 
sacrifice.  Their  heads  were  gaudily  decorated  with 
coronals  of  plumes,  and  they  carried  fans  in  their 
hands.  They  were  urged  along  by  blows,  and  com- 
pelled to  take  part  in  the  dances  in  honor  of  the  Aztec 
war-god.  The  unfortunate  captives,  then  stripped  of 
their  sad  finery,  were  stretched,  one  after  another,  on 
the  great  stone  of  sacrifice.  On  its  convex  surface  their 
breasts  were  heaved  up  conveniently  for  the  diabolical 
work  of  the  priestly  executioner,  who  cut  asunder 
the  ribs  by  a  strong  blow  with  his  sharp  razor  of 
"  itzli"  stone,  and,  thrusting  his  hand  into  the  wound, 
tore  away  the  heart,  which,  hot  and  reeking,  was  de- 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p.  449. 


r-^ 


HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

posited  on  the  golden  censer  before  the  idol.  The  body 
of  the  slaughtered  victim  was  then  hurled  down  the 
steep  stairs  of  the  pyramid,  and  the  mutilated  remains 
were  gathered  up  by  the  savages  beneath,  who  soon 
prepared  with  them  the  cannibal  repast,  which  com- 
pleted the  abomination.^ 

Many  lives  were  taken  in  a  manner  more  horrible 
still.  During  the  month  called  Teotleco  or  Coming  of 
the  gods,  the  deities,  it  was  said,  visited  the  great 
temple,  leaving  their  footprints  on  a  mat  at  the  en- 
trance. Their  arrival,  which  lasted  several  days,  was 
celebrated  with  dances  and  libations,  and  every  evening 
with  the  sacrifice  of  several  slaves,  thrown  one  after 
another,  in  the  midst  of  whistling  and  infernal  din,  on 
a  great  bed  of  live  coal  which  was  glowing  on  the 
summit  of  the  temple  mound.  At  the  feast  of  the  god 
of  fire  a  number  of  men  were  barbarously  killed  in  his 
honor.  Each  naked  and  bound  captive  was  borne 
upon  the  shoulders  of  a  priest  to  the  top  of  the  temple, 
where  smouldered  a  great  heap  of  burning  coal.  Into 
this  the  bearers  cast  their  living  burdens,  and,  when 
the  cloud  of  dust  was  blown  off,  the  dull  red  mass  could 
be  seen  to  heave,  human  forms  to  writhe  and  twist  in 
agony,  and  the  crackling  of  human  flesh  could  be 
heard.  But  the  victims  were  not  to  die  by  fire.  In  a 
few  moments,  before  life  was  extinct,  the  blackened  and 
blistered  wretches  were  raked  out  by  the  watching 
priests  and  cast  upon  the  stone  of  sacrifice ;  their 
breasts  were  cut  open  and  their  trembling  hearts  torn 
out  and  thrown  into  the  final  fire.^ 

Such  atrocities  were  always  accompanied  with  general 

^  Bernal  Diaz,  Historia  de  la  Con-     xii.  cap.  xxxv.,  ap.  Prescott,  Con- 
quista,  cap.  clii.  ;  Oviedo,  Historia     quest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  142. 
de  las  Indias,  MS.,  lib.  xxxiii.  cap.         ■' Duran,  t.  i.  p.  484;  Nadaillac, 
xlviii.;  Suhagun,  Historia,  MS.,  lib.     Prehistoric  America,  p.  295;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  ii.  pp.  330,  333. 


IMMORALITY   AND    MISERY   IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.      277 


carousing,  dancing,  and  drinking ;  yet,  for  the  honor  of 
the  natives  of  Vescotzinco,  it  must  be  stated  that,  al- 
though doing  no  better  at  home,  they  one  day  became 
scandalized  at  the  barbarity  of  the  cultured  Mexicans, 
when  they  saw  them  slowly  torture  and  kill  with  arrows 
the  writhing  victims  reeled  upon  poles  in  front  of  the 
temple  of  the  goddess  Toci.  In  their  indignation  they 
went  and  set  fire  to  the  harpy's  sanctuary  the  following 
night.^ 

A  last  form  of  human  sacrifices  in  Mexico  was  ob- 
served at  harvest  time,  when  the  first  fruits  were  offered 
to  the  sun.  A  great  number  of  captives,  or  criminals 
in  their  stead,  were  sacrificed  on  the  occasion  in  a 
peculiarly  inhuman  manner.  Two  huge  suspended 
stones  were  laboriously  drawn  in  opposite  directions, 
and  then  simultaneously  let  loose  to  dash  against  each 
other.  One  victim  after  another  was  pushed  to  the 
fatal  meeting-point  and  crushed  in  horrible  death, 
while  thousands  burst  out  in  triumphant  vociferations  !  ^ 
"  O  Lord,  what  is  man,  that  thou  art  mindful  of  him  ? 
Thou  hast  made  hini  a  little  lesser  than  the  angels,  thou 
hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and  honour  ;"  but  "  man, 
when  he  was  in  honour,  did  not  understand :  he  hath 
been  compared  to  senseless  beasts,  and  made  like  to 
them." '  Would  that  the  rebuke  could  be  no  severer ; 
but  man,  under  the  devil's  empire,  stops  at  no  crime 
that  the  brute  abhors. 

Nor  were  these  aberrations  from  human  reason  and 
human  feeling  exceptional  cases  in  civilized  Mexico. 
Every  moon  introduced  half  a  dozen  religious  feasts, 
and  every  feast  was  stained  with  fresh  human  blood.* 


*  Duran,  t.  i.  p.  484. 

'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  295 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  340 ; 
Veytia,  Hist.  Ant.  Mej.,  t.  i.  p.  249. 

'  Psalm  viii.  5,  6 ;  xlviii.  21. 


*  Torquemada,  Monarq.  Ind. ,  t. 
ii.  p.  255,  ref.  to  by  Bancroft,  vol. 
ii.  p.  304,  a.  3 ;  Duran,  t.  ii.  p. 
147. 


ii&4*!*¥ii!?fe' 


lU 


I  '  ! 


i 


|l! 


I 

Hi  mI  jii|l!; 

Pf  I  I       !r.> 


278       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Hundreds  of  men  were  deprived  of  life  to  obtain  success 
in  war,  and  the  victory  cost  the  lives  of  thousands.  The 
coronation  of  an  emperor  was  disgraced  with  murders, 
while  hecatombs  of  human  hearts  were  offered  to  the 
idols ;  and  at  his  death  hundreds  of  slaves  were  buried 
with  him.  Similar  inhuman  tribute  was  exacted  from 
the  common  people  by  subaltern  grandees.^ 

At  the  feast  of  Camaxtli,  which  Duran  calls  the 
feast  of  the  Trinity,  more  men  were  sacrificed  than  at 
any  other,  says  this  author,  because,  he  continues,  the 
day  was  celebrated  even  in  the  most  wretched  towns 
and  hamlets.  In  the  city  of  Mexico  alone  six  hundred 
persons  at  leapt  were  deprived  of  their  lives,  and  more 
than  four  hundred  were  butchered  in  the  rest  of  the 
empire.  If  to  these  we  add  the  men  and  the  women 
sacrificed  during  the  other  festivities,  we  shall  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  in  Mexico  more  people  lost  their 
lives  at  the  hands  of  idolatrous  priests  than  from 
natural  death. ^  Las  Casas,  the  enthusiastic  apologist 
of  the  natives,  who  never  was  in  Mexico,  reduces  the 
annual  victims  of  Montezuma's  empire  to  a  relatively 
small  number ;  but  John  Zumarraga,  who  in  the  year 
1530  had  been  appointed  the  first  bishop  of  Mexico, 
says  in  a  letter  of  June  12  of  the  following  year,  ad- 
dressed to  the  General  Chapter  of  the  Franciscans  in 
Spain,  that  in  that  capital  alone  twenty  thousand  human 
victims  had  annually  been  slain.  Some  authors  quoted 
by  Gomara  affirm  that  the  number  of  the  sacrificed 
amounted  to  fifty  thousand.  Acosta  writes  that  there 
was  a  certain  day  of  the  year  on  which  five  thousand 
were  killed  at  different  places  of  the  empire,  and  an- 
other day  on  which  they  sacrificed  twenty  thousand. 
Some  authors  believe  that  on  the  mountain  Tepeyacac 

*  Duran,  p.  406,  alibi ;   Rotteck,         '  Duran,  t.  ii.  p.  147  ;  Bancroft, 
Bd.  vii.  S.  65.  vol.  ii.  p.  315. 


..siaBii5:Sa8i'4^ii^ 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      279 

alone  twenty  thousand  men  were  yearly  butchered  in 
honor  of  the  goddess  Tonantzin/  Admitting  exagger- 
ation on  the  part  of  the  Spanish  historians,  says  Na- 
daillac,  it  is  probable  that  only  in  the  interior  of  Africa 
could  such  wholesale  slaughter  as  really  occurred  in 
Mexico  be  paralleled.^ 

No  page  in  all  human  history  relates  a  more  diaboli- 
cal outrage  than  the  one  on  which  is  recorded  the 
dedication  of  the  great  teocalli  or  temple  of  the  supreme 
Mexican  idol,  Huitzilopochtli.  The  inauguration  took 
place  in  the  year  1486,  in  the  presence  of  the  chief 
princes  and  of  six  millions  of  people  from  all  quarters ; 
and  seventy-two  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty- 
four  captives,  arranged  in  two  long  files,  were  slain 
during  the  four  days  of  its  duration.^  Winsor  says, 
"  Ahuitzotl  succeeded  in  1486  to  the  Mexican  throne. 
He  conducted  fresh  wars  vigorously  enough  to  be  able 
within  the  year,  if  we  may  believe  the  native  records,  to 
secure  sixty  or  seventy  thousand  captives  for  the  sacri- 
ficial stone,  so  essential  a  part  of  the  dedication  of 
Huitzilopochtli's  temple."*  Some  authors  state  the 
number  of  the  victims  at  sixty  thousand  four  hundred 
and  sixty j*^  and  the  codex  Telleriano-Remensis,  written 
some  fifty  years  after  the  conquest  of  Mexico,  reduced 
the  amount  to  twenty  thousand.**  But  even  this,  what 
a  frightful  number  of  cold-blooded  murders  on  one  re- 
ligious occasion ! 

Heartless  devil-worshippers  capable  of  such  enormi- 


n 


(i 


*  Barberiniana,  MSS.,  cod.  xl.  No. 
16,  not  foliated;  Kastner,  p.  Ill; 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.  p.  82  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  308, 
r .  8. 

"  Prehistoric  America,  p.  2S)7. 

'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  83  ;   Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p. 


577,  ref.  to  Torquemada,  Monarq. 
Ind.,  t.  i.  p.  18() ;  V^otiincourt,  Tea- 
tro  Mex.,  pt.  ii.  p.  37. 

*  Vol.  i.  p.  148. 

*  Clavigero,  Storia  Ant.  del  Mes- 
sico,  t.  i.  p.  267  ;  Kaetner,  p.  111. 

*  Ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mex- 
ico, vol.  i.  p.  83,  n.  30. 


■11 
I 


■jiMyiiii 


I 


280       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


1   ■        „  ■ 


J    k 


ties  were  capable  also  of  glorifying  in  them.  The  heads 
of  a  certain  class  of  victims  were  cut  off  after  their 
hearts  had  been  torn  out,  and  served  as  material  for 
ghastly  trophies  that  were  to  adorn  the  approaches  of 
the  idols'  slaughter-houses.  On  their  way  to  Mexico, 
Cortes  and  his  army  entered  a  large  town  that  possessed 
thirteen  teocallis  or  temples.  In  the  suburbs  they  found 
a  receptacle  in  which,  according  to  Bernal  Diaz,  were 
stored  a  hundred  thousand  skulls  of  human  victims,  all 
piled  up  and  ranged  in  order !  He  reports  the  number 
as  one  which  he  had  ascertained  by  counting  them  him- 
self. Whatever  faith  we  may  attach  to  the  precise  ac- 
curacy of  his  figures,  the  result  is  equally  startling. 
The  Spaniards  were  destined  to  become  familiar  with 
such  appalling  spectacles  as  they  came  nearer  the  capital 
of  the  Aztecs.^ 

Historians  relate  that  in  front  of  the  principal  en- 
trance to  the  temple  of  Mexico  there  was  a  mound  built 
of  stone  and  lime,  with  innumerable  skulls  of  prisoners 
of  war  inserted  between  the  stones.  At  the  foot  of  the 
mound  were  two  towers  built  entirely  of  skulls  and 
lime ;  and  on  the  top,  seventy  or  more  upright  poles, 
each  with  many  other  sticks  fastened  crosswise  to  it  at 
intervals  from  top  to  bottom ;  and  to  each  extremity  of 
the  cross-sticks  were  affixed  five  skulls.  They  go  on 
to  say  that  the  soldiers  of  Cortes  counted  these  skulls 
and  found  them  to  amount  to  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  thousand.  Those  that  composed  the  towers  they 
could  not  count.^ 


it  ! 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  393,  from  Bernal  Diaz, 
Historia  de  la  Conquiste,  cap.  Ixi.  : 
"Puestos  tantos  rimeros  de  cala- 
veras  de  muertos,  que  se  podian 
bien  contar,  segun  el  concierto  con 
que  estavan  puestas,  que  me  parece 


que  eran  inas  de  cien  mil,  y  digo 
otra  vez  sobre  cien  mil." 

*  Kastner,  p.  Ill  ;  Bancroft,  vol. 
ii.  p.  431 ;  ref.  to  Goniara,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  fo.  121  ;  Acosta,  p.  333; 
Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  vii.  cap.  xviii.  ; 
Montanus,    Nieuwe    Weereld,    bl. 


Mm 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      281 


i 


digo 


Monuments  of  this  kind — Scythian  trophies — are 
monuments  of  unnatural  human  depravity ;  and  yet 
those  ghastly  piles  were  raised  by  the  leaders — the 
emperors,  princes,  and  priests — of  a  nation  that  by 
misnomer  is  called  a  civilized  nation.  This  paradox 
should  not  surprise  us,  however,  when  we  see  the  lead- 
ers of  modern  societies,  whether  public  or  secret,  set  the 
example  of  public  corruption.  But  the  common  people, 
the  sufferers  of  wicked  rulers,  as  long  as  the  dictates  of 
human  nature  have  not  been  stamped  out  altogether, 
have  felt,  and  at  times  objected  to,  the  vile  tyranny 
by  which  they  were  controlled.  Acosta^  affords  us 
a  striking  illustration  of  this  fact  when  he  makes  the 
statement  that  "  A  grave,  religious  n\an  in  New  Spain 
told  me  that  when  he  was  in  that  country  he  had  de- 
manded of  an  antient  Indian,  a  man  of  qualitie,  for 
what  reason  the  Indians  hadde  so  soone  received  the 
Lawe  of  Jesus  Christ  and  left  their  owne,  without 
making  any  other  proofe,  triall,  or  dispute  thereon ;  for 
it  seemed  they  had  changed  their  religion  without  any 
suflEicient  reason  to  move  them.  The  Indian  answered 
him :  *  Believe  not.  Father,  that  we  have  embraced  the 
Law  of  Christ  so  rashly  as  they  say,  for  I  will  tell  you 
that  we  were  already  weary  and  discontented  with  such 
things  as  the  idolls  commanded  us,  and  we  determined 
to  leave  it  and  to  take  another  Law.  But  whenas  we 
found  that  the  religion  that  you  preached  had  no  cruel- 
ties in  it,  and  that  it  was  fit  for  us,  and  both  just  and 
good,  we  understood  and  beleeved  that  it  was  the  true 
Law  ;  and  so  we  received  it  willingly.'  Which  answer 
of  this  Indian  agrees  well  with  what  we  read  in  the 
first  Discourse,  that  Fernand  Cortes  sent  to  the  em- 
peror Charles  V.,  wherein  he  reportes  that,  after  he  had 


242  ;  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  83 ;  vol.  ii.  p.  147. 


>  Bk.  V.  ch.  xxii.  p.  352. 


MBaagaliahaaKaagagri  inr 


';'^=->-:ttiiJ^P5 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


conquered  the  city  of  Mexico,  there  came  embassadors 
to  him  from  the  province  and  commonwealth  of  Me- 
choacan,  requiring  him  to  send  them  his  Law,  and  that 
he  would  help  them  to  understand  it,  because  they  in- 
tended to  leave  their  owne,  which  seemed  not  good  unto 
them  :  which  Cortes  granted."  ^ 

No  wonder  if  the  people  of  Michoacan  made  such 
a  request ;  for  their  deities,  like  those  of  nearly  all 
the  other  provinces  of  the  Mexican  empire,  were  as 
bloodthirsty  as  those  of  the  capital,^  and  received  a 
proportionately  equal  number  of  bleeding  human 
hearts. 

There  are  but  few  evidences  to  sustain  the  assertion 
of  the  learned  W.  Assal,^  who  says  that  human  sacri- 
fices and  cannibalism  used  to  be  customary  among  the 
North  American  Indians ;  but  we  could  hardly  venture 
to  dispute  his  conclusions  when  we  notice  that  wherever 
the  devil  has  been  worshipped,  even  from  the  East  to 
the  West  of  the  cultured  eastern  hemisphere,  religious 
celebrations  were  an  occasion  of  cold-blooded  murder.* 
The  practice  of  human  sacrifices  has  existed  among 
many  nations,  says  Prescott,  not  excepting  the  most 
polished  nations  of  antiquity,  to  say  nothing  of  Egypt, 
where,  notwithstanding  the  indications  on  the  monu- 
ments, there  is  strong  reason  for  doubting  it.  It  was 
of  frequent  occurrence  among  the  Greeks,  as  every 
scholar  knows.  In  Rome  it  was  so  common  as  to  re- 
quire to  be  interdicted  by  an  express  law  less  than  a 
hundred  years  before  the  Christian  era,  a  law  recorded 
in  a  very  honest  strain  of  exultation    by  Pliny  :  in 


*  After  reading  such  contempo- 
rary statements,  it  is  refreshing  to 
hear  some  modern  writers  assert 
that  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition 
were  the  means  of  the  Mexicans' 
conversion. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  44t),  iot 
»  S.  96. 

*  Kastner,  pp.  106,  107 ;  Lingard, 
vol.  i.  pp.  19,  46. 


IMMORALITY    AND   MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      283 

spite  of  which,  however,  traces  of  the  existence  of  the 
practice  may  be  discerned  till  a  much  later  period.^ 

The  fact  of  these  revolting  sacrifices  is  clearly  es- 
tablished in  regard  to  other  American  countries,  and 
particularly  in  regard  to  Central  America.  Yucatan 
was  perhajis  the  least  degraded  country  on  our  conti- 
nent in  post-Christian  times,  for  the  gods  of  the  Yuca- 
tecs  demanded  far  less  human  lives  at  the  hands  of 
their  worshippers  than  those  of  the  Nahua  or  Mexican 
nations.  The  pages  of  Yucatec  history  are  not  marred 
by  the  constant  blood-clots  that  soil  the  Nahua  record. 
Nevertheless,  religion  in  this  country  was  not  free  from 
human  sacrifice  ;  and  although  captives  taken  in  war 
were  used  for  this  purpose,  yet  it  is  said  that  such  was 
the  inhabitants'  devotion  that,  should  a  victim  be  want- 
ing, they  would  doom  their  children  to  the  altar  rather 
than  let  the  gods  be  deprived  of  their  due.^ 

The  festivals  of  Nicaragua  were  proclaimed  from  the 
steps  leading  to  the  sacrificial  stone  by  the  priest  hold- 
ing the  instrument  of  sacrifice  in  his  hand.  He  made 
known  who  and  how  many  were  to  be  slain,  and 
whether  they  were  to  be  prisoners  taken  in  battle  or 
individuals  reared  among  themselves  for  the  purpose. 
"When  the  victim  was  stretched  upon  the  stone,  the 
oflBciating  minister  opened  his  breast,  plucked  out  his 
heart,  and  daubed  his  face  with  the  blood.  He  next 
dismembered  the  body,  and  gave  the  heart  to  the  high- 
priest,  the  feet  and  hands  to  the  king,  the  thighs  to  the 
one  who  had  captured  him,  the  entrails  to  the  trumpet- 


lOl  . 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  82  and  n.  28,  ibid.,  ref.  to 
Pliny,  Hist.  Nat.,  lib.  xxx.  sees.  3, 
4,  and  Horace,  Epod.  in  Canidiam. 

As  late  as  a.d.  270  a  Roman  em- 
peror, Aurelian,  declared  to  the 
Roman  Senate  his  intention  of  ap- 


peasing the  ]\Iarcomans,  who  were 
then  invading  the  empire,  by  de- 
livering to  them  for  sacrificial  pur- 
poses the  prisoners  whom  he  had 
taken  in  war. 

^  Herrera,  dec.   ii.   lib.  iii.    cap. 
liiii.  fo.  47  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  704. 


284       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ers,  and  the  remainder  to  the  people,  that  all  might 
eat ;  for  it  was  thought  that  there  was  no  good  luck  in 
store  that  year  for  one  who  should  not  swallow  his 
morsel  of  the  flesh.  When  they  ate  foreigners  sacri- 
ficed, they  held  exciting  dances  and  passed  the  days 
in  drunken  revels  and  smoking.^ 

Las  Casas  asserts  that  in  Guatemala  the  hands  and 
feet  of  the  human  victims  were  given  to  the  king  and 
the  high-priest,  the  rest  to  other  priests ;  but  that  no 
part  was  left  for  the  people.  It  appears,  however, 
from  nearly  all  other  historians,  that  the  civil  and 
religious  chiefs  were  not  the  only  cannibals  in  Guate- 
mala.'^ 

Cogolludo,  with  other  authors  generally,  admits  the 
fact  of  human  sacrifices  and  of  cannibalism  in  Yucatan, 
and  relates  that  Aguilar's  shipwrecked  companions  were 
sacrificed  and  eaten  by  the  natives.^  Mercer  likewise 
states  that  "  human  bones  scattered  in  the  rubbish  of 
the  Yucatan  caves  indicate  that  the  old  inhabitants 
were  addicted  to  cannibalism."  * 

Spanish  prisoners  were  devoured  in  several  parts  of 
New  Spain  ;  but  Albornoz  says  that  the  Indians  of 
Honduras  gave  up  eating  the  flesh  of  the  white  victims 
because  it  was  too  tough  and  stringy.^ 

As  the  other  tribes  of  Central  America,  those  of 
Darien  and  Panama  ate  the  flesh  of  their  human  vic- 
tims ;  ^  and  Bastian,  after  several  contemporary  writers, 
assures  us  that  farther  south,  even  in  civilized  Peru, 


I  'li 


\ 

1' 

> 

kii  • '' 

1 

■   'i 

'■  i 

•f 

, 

■'  I 

1 

1 

! 

*  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap. 
liiii.  fo.  47 ;  P.  Martyr,  dec.  vi.  lib. 
vi.  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  709.  The 
heads  of  the  victims  were  piled  up 
into  trophies,  as  in  Mexico.  (P. 
Martyr,  ibid. ) 

*  See  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  725  and 
n.  9. 

*  Hist.  Yuc,  p.  25;  Landa,  Re- 


lacion,  p.  165 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p. 
472  ;  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  271. 

*  Hill-Caves  of  Yucatan,  p.  161. 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  268. 

*  Peschel,  Zeitalter  der  Entd.,  S. 
359. 


...«*^«-*^.:.»*i«s4to*^'^"«-^^ 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      285 


36    of 

\'ic- 
ters, 
*eru, 


111.  p. 

ixico, 

161. 
jrica, 

i.,S. 


the  grandees  of  the  country  satisfied  their  unnatural 
appetite  on  the  flesh  of  their  fellow-beings/ 

On  his  first  voyage  of  discovery,  Pizarro  landed  with 
a  small  body  of  men  on  the  Peruvian  coast,  and,  ad- 
vancing a  short  distance  into  the  interior,  fell  in  with 
an  Indian  hamlet.  It  was  abandoned  by  the  inhab- 
itants, who,  on  the  approach  of  the  invaders,  had  be- 
taken themselves  to  the  mountains ;  and  the  Spanish, 
entering  their  deserted  dwellings,  found  there  a  good 
store  of  maize  and  other  articles  of  food,  and  rude  orna- 
ments of  gold  of  considerable  value.  Food  was  not 
more  necessary  for  their  bodies  than  was  the  sight  of 
gold  to  stimulate  their  appetite  for  adventure.  One 
spectacle,  however,  chilled  their  blood  with  horror. 
This  was  the  sight  of  human  flesh,  which  they  found 
roasting  before  the  fire,  as  the  barbarians  had  left  it, 
preparatory  to  their  obscene  repast.  The  Spaniards, 
conceiving  that  they  had  fallen  in  with  a  tribe  of  Caribs, 
retreated  precipitately  to  their  vessel.  They  were  not 
steeled  by  sad  familiarity  with  the  spectacle,  like  the 
Conquerors  of  Mexico.^ 

Peru  was  endowed  with  a  regular  government,  it  was 
advanced  in  learning  and  material  progress,  and  we 
have  a  right  to  be  astonished  when  we  find  it  contam- 
inated with  the  most  disgraceful  vice  of  crudest  sav- 
agery ;  but  it  is  a  fact,  testified  by  all  history,  that 
material  civilization  will  not  prevent  social  crime  nor 
social  infamy. 

Our  subject  affords  us  another  sad  and  striking 
illustration.  Mexico  was,  doubtless,  the  most  civilized 
country  in  America  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  discov- 
ery, and  yet  nowhere  on  earth  was  there  ever  a  more 


1  Bd.  i.  S.  458. 


^  Thus  W.  H.  Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  221. 


I 


286       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

sanguinary  nation  that  feasted  on  liuman  flesh  at  almost 
every  civil  or  religious  solemnity.^ 

At  ordinary  sacrifices,  as  soon  as  the  heart  had  heen 
torn  out,  the  victim  was  flung  down  the  temple  steps, 
whence  it  was  carried  to  the  house  of  the  warrior  by 
whom  it  had  been  taken  ca})tive,  and  was  cooked  and 
eaten  at  a  feast  given  by  him  to  his  friends.  At  one 
of  the  merchants'  feasts  a  number  of  slaves  were  killed 
antl  eaten.  The  wretches  were  bought  some  time  be- 
forehand at  the  slave  mart  in  Azcapuzalco,  kept  clean, 
and  fattened  for  the  occasion.  If  we  may  credit  the 
assertion  of  some  authors,  says  Bancroft,  the  bodies  of 
the  little  children  that  were  religiously  butchered  or 
drowned  in  Mexico  were  eaten  as  a  choice  delicacy  by 
the  priests  and  chief  men.^  During  the  Aztec  domina- 
tion, says  the  same  author,  the  custom  of  eating  the  flesh 
of  sacrificed  enemies  became  almost  universal  among  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Mexican  empire.  That  cannibalism, 
for  the  sake  of  food,  unconnected  with  religious  rites, 
was  ever  practised,  there  is  little  evidence  to  show ;  yet 
the  anonymous  Conqueror  tells  us  that  they  esteemed 
the  flesh  of  men  above  all  other  food,  and  risked  their 
lives  in  battle  solely  to  obtain  it.  Bernal  Diaz  writes 
that  they  sold  it  at  retail  in  the  markets,  and  Veytia 
with  Clavigero  positively  asserts  that  this  was  a  fact 
among  the  Otomi  tribe.^  After  giving  a  detailed  bill  of 
fare  of  Mexican  repasts,  Prescott  adds :  "  One  other 
dish,  of  a  disgusting  nature,  was  sometimes  added  to  the 
feast,  especially  when  the  celebration  partook  of  a  re- 
ligious character.  On  such  occasions  a  slave  was  killed, 
and  his  flesh,  elaborately  dressed,  formed  one  of  the 

'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America,  '  Prescott,   Conquest  of  Mexico, 

pp.   268,   295 ;   Acosta,   bk.  v.  ch.  vol.  i.  p.  87 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp. 

XX.  p.   349 ;  Rotteck,    Bd.  vii.  S.  305,  307,  309,  358,  395,  396. 

65.  '  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  308,  357. 


11^1 


IMMOUALITY    AND    MIHERY    IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.      287 

chief  oriminents  of  the  hanquet.  Cannibalism  in  tlie 
guise  of  an  Epicurean  science,  becomes  even  the  more 
revolting."  ^  During  their  residence  in  the  Mexican 
provinces  the  companions  of  Cort<^8  witnessed  more 
than  once  the  barbarous  rites  of  tlie  natives,  their  cruel 
sacrifices  of  human  victims,  and  their  disgusting  canni- 
bal fetes.  "  Some  of  us  have  seen  it,"  says  the  Letter 
of  Vv3ra  Cruz,  **  and  those  who  have  assert  that  it  is  the 
most  terrible  and  the  most  frightful  thing  they  ever 
saw."  The  Letter  computes  that  there  were  fifty  or 
sixty  persons  thus  butchered  and  devoured  in  each  of 
the  temples  every  year,  giving  an  annual  consumption, 
in  the  countries  which  the  Spaniards  had  visited  before 
October,  1519,  of  three  thousand  or  four  thousand  vic- 
tims. However  loose  this  arithmetic  may  be,  the  gen- 
eral fact  is  appalling.^ 

The  other  neighboring  nations  followed  the  example 
of  the  citizens  of  Mexico,  having  also  solemn  banquets 
at  which  they  devoured  the  flesh  of  their  sacrificed  cap- 
tives and  slaves.  Such  was,  in  particular,  the  case  with 
those  of  Michoacan  and  Tlascala.  At  the  taking  of 
Mexico  the  Tlascaltec  soldiery  feasted  upon  the  bodies 
of  the  slain  Mexicans,  and  Cortes,  although  shocked, 
was  unable  to  prevent  the  outrage."* 

The  tutelary  deity  of  the  Tlascalans  was  the  same 
ferocious  war-god  as  that  of  the  Aztecs,  though  with  a 
different  name ;  their  temples,  in  like  manner,  were 
drenched  with  the  blood  of  human  victims,  and  their 
boards   groaned  under  the  same  loathsome  food.* 


357. 


'  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p. 
157,  ref.  to  Sahagun,  Hist,  de 
Nueva  Espafia,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xxxvii.  ; 
lib.  viii.  cap.  xiii.  ;  lib.  ix.  cap.  x.- 
xiv.  ;  Torquemacla,  Monarch.  Ind., 
lib.  xiii.  cap.  xxiii.  ;  Relacion  d'un 
gentil'  huomo,  ap.  Ramusio. 


^  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  351  and  n.  5,  ibid. 

'  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xx.  p.  349. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  408. 


>9BiiP 


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'Ml 


'J  'i 


J, 


m 


It 

'  i' 

1 

1 

i 

1      ' 

I   ' 

288       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Nor  was  it  along  the  western  coast  of  our  continent 
only  that  the  unnatural  practice  prevailed.  Bastian 
assures  us  that  cannibalism  was  raging  in  nearly  every 
part  of  America.^  The  word  itseH'  is  derived  from  the 
abomination  existing  in  the  islands  first  discovered. 
Columbus,  says  Webster,^  in  a  letter  to  the  Spanish 
monarchs,  of  October,  1498,  mentions  that  the  people 
of  Hayti  lived  in  constant  fear  of  the  Caribales,  or 
Caribbees, — the  inhabitants  of  the  smaller  Antilles ; 
which  form  of  the  name  was  afterwards  changed  into 
the  Low  Latin  Canibales,  in  order  to  express  more 
forcibly  their  character  by  a  word  intelligible  through 
a  Latin  root,  canis,  dog, — doggish  fury  after  (human) 
flesh. 

Maffei  ^  testifies  that,  farther  south,  the  Brazilian  na- 
tives were  addicted  to  the  same  shocking  vice,  which 
even  extended  eastward  into  Africa  by  way  of  the  Ca- 
nary Islands.* 

As  in  Central  and  South  America,  so  also  cannibal- 
ism and  human  sacrifices  used  to  be  customary  among 
the  ferocious  tribes  of  North  America.^  The  abomina- 
ble practice  was  not  common  here,  as  it  was  with  the 
civilized  nations,  yet  often,  as  a  religious  ceremony,  the 
flesh  of  the  tortured  captive  was  eaten,  his  heart  being 
divided  into  small  pieces  and  given  to  the  young  men 
and  boys,  that  it  might  communicate  its  courage  to 
them.     On  the  16th  day  of  March,  1649,  the  saintly 


>  S.  645. 

'  Art.  Cannibal. 

'  Lib.  ii.  p.  76. 

*  Domen.  Malipiero,  Annali  Ve- 
neti,  in  Archivio  Storico  Italiano, 
eer.  i.  t.  vii.  pt.  i.  p.  487 :  "  1497, 
Francesco  Capelo  6  zonto  dalla  so 
ambaesaria  de  Spagna  et  ti  vegnii 
con  le  galie  de  Barbaria  ;  e  lia  con- 
duto  captivo  un  Re  de  Canaria,  clie 


'1  Re  et  Rezina  de  Spagna  ghe  ha 
consegni  de  presentar  per  suo  nonie 
alia  Signoria ;  et  6  un  de  i  cinque 
Re  presoni,  die  ghe  son  stati  con- 
duti  con  le  caravele  che  andete  all' 
aquisto  deile  Ganarie ;  e  confessa 
che'l  no  abhoriss  ecarne  humana 
massinianiente  de  nemissi." 
» Assal,  S.  95. 


IMMOKALITY    AND    MISERY    IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.      289 


le  ha 
Inome 

^nque 
con- 
air 
essa 

lana 


Father  Breboeuf  was  made  a  prisoner  by  the  Iroquois, 
who,  after  a  succession  of  other  revolting  tortures, 
scalped  him.  On  seeing  him  nearly  dead,  they  laid 
open  his  breast,  and  came  in  a  crowd  to  drink  the 
blood  of  so  valiant  a  man.  A  chief  tore  out  his  heart 
and  devoured  it.^ 

The  bravery  which  the  savages  pretended  to  imbibe 
with  the  blood  of  their  foes  was  necessary  to  them  to 
meet  another  evil  of  their  barbarism, — the  constant  wars 
with  the  neighboring  tribes,  the  endless  bloody  feuds 
that  kept  desolate  the  fairest  and  most  extensive  coun- 
tries of  our  continent.  Mutual  hatred  and  slaughter 
forbade  them  having  a  home  and  drawing  from  the  rich 
soil  the  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life.  These  human 
brutes,  exposed  to  all  kinds  of  hardships  and  sufferings, 
roamed  from  plain  to  plain,  finding  their  work  and 
coarse  pleasure  alike  in  killing  man  and  beast,  in 
abusing  the  weaker  sex,  and  in  observing  some  un- 
couth forms  of  superstition  and  devil-worship.^  Such, 
generally,  was  and  will  be  the  miserable  condition  of 
the  wild  American  tribes,  unless  the  law  of  Christian 
charity  has  elevated  them  or  will  yet  elevate  them  to  a 
higher  level,  not  only  of  spiritual  enlightenment  but 
also  of  material  prosperity.^ 

Neither  were  the  temporal  circumstances  of  the  peo- 
ple at  large  any  better  among  those  that  we  call  civil- 
ized nations.  A  few  noblemen  had  numerous  privi- 
leges, and  their  power  over  the  common  classes  was 
nearly  absolute.     Fuenleal,  bishop  of  San  Domingo, 


'  O'Kane  Murray,  Popular  His- 
tory, pp.  41,  68,  ref.  to  Parkinan. 
Cannibalism  was  practised  by  the 
Red  Skins  of  the  United  States.  In 
this  cf>nnection  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  name  "Mohawk"  means 
"Cannibal."  It  is  an  Algonquin 
I.— 19 


word,  applied  to  the  Iroquois  tribe 
by  their  enemies  about  the  lower 
Hudson.  (Fiske,  vol.  i.  p.  50  and  n. ) 

'■'  Payne,  p.  Kk). 

*  See  (iarciliisso  de  la  Vega,  Co- 
mentarios  de  los  Incaa  del  Peru, 
lib.  ii.  cap.  i.  p.  32. 


SSsSb 


290       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

writes  to  Charles  V.  of  the  lower  orders,  that  they  were 
and  still  are  so  submissive  that  they  allow  themselves  to 
be  killed  or  sold  into  slavery  without  complaining.^  A 
fit  of  anger  of  the  Peruvian  Inca  would  cost  the  lives  of 
the  inhabitants  of  a  whole  province,^  while  the  policy 
of  the  Aztec  monarchs  pursued  towards  their  subjects 
was  to  enforce  obedience  and  submission  by  enacting 
laws  that  made  death  the  penalty  of  the  most  trivial 
offences.^  The  governors  and  princes  took  the  example 
of  the  emperor.  Father  Acosta  writes  that  "  so  great 
is  the  authority  of  the  caciques  over  their  vassals,  that 
these  latter  dare  not  open  their  lips  to  complain  of  any 
order  given  to  them,  no  matter  how  difficult  or  disagree- 
able it  may  be  to  fulfil.  Indeed,  they  would  rather 
die  and  perish  than  incur  the  wrath  of  their  lord.  For 
this  reason  the  nobles  frequently  abuse  their  power, 
and  are  often  guilty  of  extortion,  robbery,  and  violence 
towards  their  vassals."  Camargo  tells  us  that  the 
plebeians  were  content  to  work  without  pay  for  the 
nobles  if  they  could  only  secure  their  good  will  by 
so  doing.* 

It  is  a  matter  of  course  that  these  trembling,  down- 
trodden people  were  to  provide  the  victims  for  the  idols, 
the  tools  for  the  passions  of  their  rulers,  and  the  luxu- 
ries for  their  tyrannical  aristocracy.  They  were  al- 
lowed to  live  and  to  toil,  if  they  could  prevent  starva- 
tion. Besides  rents  and  dues,  the  proportion  in  which 
taxes  were  paid  for  the  imperial  court  is  stated  at  from 
thirty  to  thirty-three  per  cent,  of  everything  made  and 
produced  in  the  Mexican  empire.     Oviedo  affirms  that 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  191. 
»  Rotteck,  Bd.  vii.  S.  ()9. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  185. 

*  Ibid.,   p.   217,   ref.   to    Acosta, 
De    procumnda    Indorum   Salute, 


quoted  in  Pimentel,  Memorie  sobra 
la  Raza  Indigena,  p.  81,  and  Ca- 
margo, Hist.  Tlax.,  in  Nouvelles 
Annales  dea  Voyages,  t.  xcix.  p. 
130. 


IMMORALITY    AND   MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      291 


»wn- 

flols, 

LXU- 

al- 
•va- 
lich 

Irom 
and 

Ithat 


each  tax  payer,  in  addition  to  one-third  of  his  property, 
delivered  one  out  of  every  three  of  his  children,  or  a 
slave  instead,  for  the  sacrifice ;  and  if  he  failed  to  do 
this  he  forfeited  his  own  life.^  "  In  Michoacan,"  says 
Herrera,^  *'  they  gave  as  tribute  to  the  king  all  they 
had,  when  required  to  give  it ;  even  their  wives  and 
children,  when  he  wanted  them."  They  were  worse 
than  slaves.  The  duties  of  the  tax  collectors  were  not 
very  arduous,  as  the  people  hastened  to  pay  their  dues 
before  being  called  upon  ;  but  during  the  reign  of  Mon- 
tezuma II.  the  taxes  i  acreased  so  enormously,  owing  to 
the  great  extravagance  of  the  court,  that  this  commend- 
able zeal  cooled  down  very  considerably.  As  in  Italy  to- 
day, the  populace  had  not  wherewith  to  pay  any  more.^ 
A  formal  prayer  addressed  to  the  god  Tezcatlipoca 
gives  us  a  description  of  the  utter  destitution  to  which 
the  people  were  sometimes  reduced :  "  O  our  Lord,  I 
present  myself  here  before  thee,  to  say  some  few  words 
concerning  the  need  of  the  poor  people,  the  people  of 
none  estate  nor  intelligence.  When  they  lie  down  at 
night,  they  have  nothing,  nor  when  they  rise  in  the 
morning ;  the  darkness  and  the  light  pass  alike  in  great 
poverty.  Know,  O  Lord,  that  thy  subjects  and  ser- 
vants suffer  a  sore  poverty,  that  cannot  be  told  of  more 
than  that  it  is  a  sore  poverty  and  desolateness.  The 
men  have  no  garments,  nor  the  women,  to  cover  them- 
selves with,  but  only  certain  rags  rent  in  every  part, 
that  allow  the  air  and  the  cold  to  pass  through  every- 
where. With  great  toil  and  weariness  they  scrape  to- 
gether enough  for  each  day,  going  by  mountain  and 


\ 


gobra 
Ca- 

^■elles 
P- 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  235  ;  Oviedo, 
t.  iii.  p.  502. 

'  Dec.  ii.  lib.  vii.  cap.  xiii.  ;  dec. 
iii.  lib.  iii.  cap.  x.,  quoted  by  Ban- 
croft, vol.  ii.  p.  2.35,  u.  36. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  237 ;  Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p. 
306. 


1 

Ifii 

'  i  ^ 

Jflik 

.■1 

m 

V 

i'' 

m 

ii 

i!i: 


292       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

wilderness  seeking  their  food  ;  so  faint  and  enfeebled 
are  they  that  their  bowels  cleave  to  their  ribs  and  all 
their  body  re-echoes  with  hoUowness ;  and  they  walk 
as  people  affrighted,  the  face  and  the  body  in  likeness 
of  death.  If  they  be  merchants  they  now  sell  only 
cakes  of  salt  and  broken  pepper;  the  people  that  have 
something  despise  their  wares,  so  that  they  go  out  to 
sell  from  door  to  door  and  from  house  to  house ;  and 
when  they  sell  nothing  they  sit  down  sadly  by  some 
fence  or  wall,  or  in  some  corner,  licking  their  lips  and 
gnawing  the  nails  of  their  hands,  for  the  hunger  that 
is  in  them  ;  they  look  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other, 
at  the  mouths  of  those  that  pass  by,  hoping,  peradven- 
ture,  that  one  may  speak  some  word  to  them.  O  com- 
passionate God,  the  bed  on  which  they  lie  down  is  not  a 
thing  to  rest  upon,  but  to  endure  torment  in  ;  they  draw 
a  rag  over  them  at  night  and  so  sleep ;  there  they  throw 
down  their  bodies  and  the  bodies  of  children  that  thou 
hast  given  them.  For  the  misery  they  grow  up  in,  for 
the  filth  of  their  food,  for  the  lack  of  covering,  their 
faces  are  yellow  and  all  their  bodies  of  the  color  of 
earth.  They  tremble  with  cold,  and  for  leanness  they 
stagger  in  walking.  They  go  weeping  and  sighing  and 
full  of  sadness,  and  all  misfortunes  are  joined  to  them. 
Though  they  stay  by  a  fire,  they  find  little  heat.  O 
our  Lord,  most  clement,  invisible,  and  impalpable,  I 
supplicate  thee  to  see  good  to  have  pity  upon  them,  as 
they  move  in  thy  presence,  wailing  and  clamoring  and 
seeking  mercy  with  anguish  of  heart !  .  .  ."  ^ 

Yet  mercy  implored  from  the  idol  was  denied  by 
the  tax  collector,  who  sometimes  sold  into  slavery  the 
pitiable  wretches  unable  to  satisfy  the  greediness  of 
prodigal  rulers. 

'  Sahagun,  t.  ii.  lib.  vi.  p.  39,  quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  204. 


-v^>iwh»<i(Mj 


■^1 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      293 


The  condition  of  the  lower  caste  in  Peru  was  less 
pitiful  than  that  of  the  poorest  class  in  Mexico,  yet  far 
from  being  enviable.  The  impositions  on  the  Peruvi- 
ans seem  to  have  been  sufficiently  heavy,  says  Prescott. 
On  them  rested,  he  continues,  the  whole  burden  of 
maintaining  not  only  their  own  order,  but  every  order 
in  the  State.  The  members  of  the  royal  house,  the 
great  nobles,  even  the  public  functionaries  and  the 
numerous  body  of  the  priesthood,  were  all  exempt  from 
taxation.  The  whole  duty  of  defraying  the  expenses 
of  all  kinds  belonged  to  the  people,  besides  that  of 
shedding  their  blood  in  time  of  war.  They  were  to 
till  all  the  available  soil,  a  great  portion  of  which  was 
destined  for  the  support  of  temples  and  priests;  an- 
other part,  more  considerable  still,  was  reserved  for  the 
luca,  his  household,  and  the  general  government,  and 
the  remainder  of  the  land  was  divided  among  them  in 
equal  shares.  It  was  provided  by  law  that  every 
Peruvian  should  marry  at  a  certain  age.  A  lot  of 
land  was  then  assigned  to  him,  sufficient  for  his  own 
maintenance  and  that  of  his  wife.  An  additional  por- 
tion was  granted  for  every  child,  the  apportionment  of 
the  soil  being  renewed  every  year,  and  the  possessions 
of  the  tenant  increased  or  diminished  according  to  the 
number  of  his  family. 

The  Peruvian  could  not  better  his  condition ;  his 
labors  were  for  others  rather  than  for  himself.  How- 
ever industrious,  he  could  not  add  a  rood  to  his  own 
possessions  nor  advance  himself  one  hair's  breadth  in 
the  social  scale.  As  he  was  born  so  he  was  to  die. 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  if  no  man  could  become  rich, 
no  man  could  become  poor.  No  spendthrift  could 
waste  his  substance,  no  adventurous  schemer  could  im- 
poverish his  family  by  speculation.  The  law  con- 
stantly directed  all  to  enforce  a  steady  industry  and 


I  •? 


i  V 1 


294       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


.       { 


a  sober  management  of  affairs ;  and  when  a  man  was 
reduced  to  poverty  by  misfortune  the  arm  of  the  law 
was  stretched  out  to  minister  relief  from  the  revenues 
of  his  royal  master.  Like  a  useful  brute,  he  was  cared 
for  when  suffering,  but  when  able-bodied  was  compelled 
to  work. 

The  great  hardship  in  the  case  of  the  Peruvian  was 
that  he  was  not  the  free  agent  of  his  own  activity  nor 
of  his  own  feelings.  He  tilled  the  soil  or  worked  at  a 
trade,  according  to  the  dictates  of  government  officers, 
without  money  and  with  little  property  of  any  kind, 
paying  his  taxes  in  labor.  Even  his  time  he  could 
not  properly  call  his  own,  for  it  was  a  crime  against  the 
State  to  be  wasteful  in  time,  and  thus  defraud  the  ex- 
chequer. The  Peruvian,  laboring  all  his  life  for  others, 
might  be  compared  to  the  convict  in  a  treadmill,  going 
the  same  dull  round  of  incessant  toil,  with  the  con- 
sciousness that,  however  profitable  the  results  to  the 
State,  they  were  nothing  to  him.  The  government  pre- 
scribed to  every  man  his  local  habitation,  his  sphere  of 
action,  nay,  the  very  nature,  quality,  and  quantity  of 
that  action.  He  ceased  to  be  a  free  man,  and  it  might 
almost  be  said  that  the  law  relieved  him  of  personal 
responsibility.  His  sentiments  and  affections  them- 
selves were  regulated  by  legal  enactments.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-four  years  the  young  man  of  the  lower  order 
was  to  choose  a  bride  from  eighteen  to  twenty  years 
old,  and  his  choice  was  restricted  within  narrow  limits, 
while  his  parents  and  his  curaca  or  local  governor, 
especially,  effectively  guided  his  possible  preferences. 
The  day  of  his  marriage  was  set  for  him,  and  his 
dwelling  made  ready  at  the  charge  of  the  district. 

The  very  existence  of  the  individual  was  absorbed 
by  that  of  the  community,  personified  by  the  higher 
caste  and  the  Inca.     His  hopes,  and  his  fears,  his  joys 


,'l»n';-V  '  ■  - 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      295 


and  his  sorrows,  the  tonderest  sympathies  of  his  nature, 
which  would  most  naturally  shrink  from  observation, 
were  all  regulated  by  law.  He  was  not  allowed  even 
to  be  happy  in  his  own  way.^  The  government  of  the 
Incas  was  the  mildest,  but  the  most  absolute  and 
searching  of  despotisms. 

Superstition  and  the  severity  of  the  laws  kept  the 
Peruvian  serfs  to  the  task  and  within  the  bounds  that 
had  been  assigned  them  ;  for  death  was  the  penalty  of 
almost  every  transgression,  and  rebellion  against  the 
"  Child  of  the  Sun,"  the  Inca,  was  the  greatest  of  all 
crimes,  whose  chastisement  was  so  rigorous  that  some- 
times whole  provinces,  trying  to  cast  off  the  galling 
yoke,  were  laid  waste  after  the  last  of  their  grown  men 
had  been  put  to  death.'^ 

The  people  of  Peru  were  not  slaves,  in  the  strictest 
sense  of  the  word,  but  their  condition  was  little  better 
than  that  of  real  serfs.  Personal  liberty  and  freedom 
of  action  were  allowed  to  the  common  classes  in  the 
Mexican  empire  ;  but  here  also  were  numbers  of  people 
reduced  to  the  lowest  state  of  actual  bondage. 

Slavery  was  enforced  and  recognized  by  law  and 
usage  throughout  the  entire  country  inhabited  by  the 
Nahua  nations.  Tax  collectors  seized  the  man  when 
his  contributions  were  not  forthcoming,  poverty  drove 
people  to  sell  their  children  and  themselves,  and  the 
penalties  for  transgressions  of  the  laws  afforded  a  con- 
siderable supply  to  the  slave  market. 

Slaves  were  continually  offered    for  sale   in   every 


F  il 


'  One  might  suppose  that  the 
educated  Peruvians  imagined  the 
common  people  to  have  no  souls  ; 
so  little  is  said  of  their  opinions  as 
to  the  condition  of  these  latter  in 
a  future  life,  while  they  are  diffuse 
on   the    prospects    of   the   higher 


orders,  which,  they  fondly  be- 
lieved, were  to  keep  pace  with 
their  condition  on  earth.  (Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p. 
89,  n.  2. ) 

^  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  45,  48,  59,  60,  82,  113-115. 


296       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


M 


V   '!«• 


'  E 


town,  but  tlie  principal  slave-mart  in  the  Mexican 
empire  seems  to  have  been  the  town  of  Azcapuzalco, 
about  six  miles  from  Mexico,  where  fairs  were  regu- 
larly held  for  the  sale  of  these  unfortunate  beings. 
They  were  brought  there  by  their  masters,  dressed 
in  their  gayest  apparel,  and  instructed  to  sing,  dance, 
and  display  their  little  stock  of  personal  accomplish- 
ments, so  as  to  recommend  themselves  to  the  purchaser. 
Cort(5s  also  speaks  of  Acalan,  a  city  of  Guatemala,  as 
a  place  where  an  extensive  trade  in  human  kind  was 
carried  on.  Slave-dealing  was  an  honorable  calling 
among  the  Aztecs.^ 

While  in  Nicaragua  the  chiefs  of  the  conquered  ene- 
mies were  killed  and  eaten,  the  common  captives  were 
enslaved ;  but  in  Central  America,  as  well  as  on  the 
plains  of  Anahuac,  the  slaves  lived  in  constant  fear 
of  finishing  their  lives  of  toil  and  shame  by  being 
slaughtered  and  devoured  at  some  religious  celebration. "^ 

Hard  labor,  the  misery  and  disgrace  of  slavery,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  blood  and  life  either  on  a  battle-field  or 
on  a  demon's  altar  were  the  common  destiny  of  the 
civilized  American  natives,  while  a  few  individuals, 
proportionately  very  few,  enjoyed  the  riches  of  the 
land  and  the  fruits  of  the  people's  toil  and  suffering ; 
while  one  heartless  master,  the  first  idol  of  his  country, 
was  allowed  to  ruin  both  the  souls  and  the  bodies  of 
millions  trembling  before  him.  Such  has  always  been 
the  object  and  the  result  of  infidel  governments  the 
world  over.  Where  God  and  his  church  are  denied, 
the  devil  puts  up  his  rich  minions  to  do  his  fiendish 
work.     Montezuma  ground  his  people  under  the  bur- 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of   Mexico,         '^  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  217,  219, 
vol.  i.  p.  149,  ref.  to  Sahagun,  His-     223,  050. 
toria   de   Nueva   Espafla,   lib.   ix. 
cap.  iv 


IMMORALITY    AND    MISERY    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      297 


of 


den  of  taxes,  corrupted  thousands  of  female  slaves,  and 
repeatedly  ordered  the  massacre  of  thousands  of  men  ; 
but  he  himself  worshipped  the  devil,  who  during  the 
night  "  appeared  unto  him  and  gave  him  answer,"  says 
Thomas  Gage,^  in  a  golden  chapel  built  in  the  middle 
of  vicious,  howling  beasts. 

Place  together  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople,  the 
millionaires  of  Wall  Street,  and  the  wretches  of  the 
slums  of  London,  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of 
aboriginal  American  countries. 

The  influence  of  Christianity,  although  often  dis- 
owned, is  a  powerful  safeguard  of  the  poor,  the  labor- 
ers, the  masses  of  modern  society ;  but  if  the  millions 
of  common  people  have  so  much  to  complain  of  to- 
day, who  shall  faithfully  draw  the  dark  picture  of 
the  tribes  that  were  living  in  times  and  countries  in 
which  the  golden  rule  of  the  love  of  God  and  man 
was  not  held  before  the  eyes  of  rulers  and  subjects? 

Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  the  Cuzcoan  Inca,  states,  as 
noticed  already,  that  the  former  Peruvians  were,  some 
like  tamed  brutes,  others  like  ferocious  beasts.^  Maffei 
says,^  that  the  Brazilians,  scattered  over  an  immense 
country  without  laws  or  any  form  of  government,  were 
more  alike  to  wild  animals  than  to  men.  Articulate 
speech,  says  Payne,*  the  knowledge  of  fire,  and  the 
use  of  rude  implements  of  stone  and  wood  but  poorly 
distinguished  the  American  Indian  from  the  lower 
mammals. 

The  particular  features  of  the  Indian's  intellectual 
and  moral  condition  are  accurately  summed  up  by 
Rotteck :  ^  Scarcity  of  mental  conceptions,  incapacity 


'i 


*  New  Survey,  p.  99,  quoted  by 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  lt)4. 

^  Comentarios,  lib.  i.  cap.  ix.  p. 
12. 


»  Lib.  ii.  ]).  76. 

*  P.  16<>. 

*  Bd.  vii.  S.  61. 


ill 

t" 

ll 


W>  : 


If 

■  i 


298       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

for  supersensuous  or  abstract  ideas,  brutal  thought- 
lessness, hick  of  providence,  dislike  of  mental  work, 
complete  surrender  to  temporary  sensual  enjoyments 
and  childish  plays,  credulity,  stupid  superstition,  and 
comj)lacent  indolence,  besides  consummate  egotism, 
hardlieartedness,  insensibility  towards  man  and  beast, 
cruelty,  knavery,  reticence,  and  suUenness.  The  In- 
('ian's  apparently  good  qualities  themselves  root  in 
ignoble  grounds  :  his  love  for  his  children  is  but  low 
instinct,  that  ends  with  the  helplessness  of  the  little 
ones ;  nor  do  his  children  make  him  any  return  for 
it,  for,  as  soon  as  they  can  take  care  of  themselves, 
their  progenitors  become  strangers  to  them.  More- 
over, there  is  nothing  of  kindness  towards  the  weaker 
sex :  woman  is  man's  slave,  more  pitiable  in  America 
than  anywhere  else.  Gratitude  is  altogether  unknown 
to  the  Indian.^  His  social  institutions  are  reduced  to 
the  preservation  of  his  own  tribe  or  the  destruction  of 
another  by  war,  and  to  the  revenge  of  personal  insults 
by  a  semblance  of  justice.  Of  institutions  for  the 
promotion  of  common  welfare  or  progress  he  knows 
nothing,  and  the  very  family  relations  are  of  the  loosest 
kind. 

Is  not  this  Darwin's  missing  link  between  beast  and 
man? 

'  So  also  states  Maffei  in  regard     to  those  of    Brazil,  in  particular. 

(Lib.  ii.  p.  76.) 


CHAPTER  XII. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OP   OUR   ABORIGINES. 


In  the  presence  of  so  much  religions  abasement,  of 
abject  immorality,  of  inhuman  cruelty,  and  of  real 
beastliness,  as  we  have  just  noticed,  no  one  will  dispute 
the  conclusion  that  the  American  Indians  of  the  six- 
teenth century  were  either  the  descendants  of  slowly 
degraded  nations  of  ancient  civilized  America,  or  the 
progeny  of  semi-barbarous  strangers. 

It  is,  however,  very  difficult,  not  to  say  impossible,  to 
decide  which  of  the  two  probabilities  is  the  actual  fact. 
The  theory  of  human  degradation  on  our  hemisphere 
will  find  no  feeble  argument  in  the  mental  and  physical 
condition  of  most  American  aborigines,  who  were  so 
thoroughly  brutalized  that  they  could  easily  be  driven 
from  their  homes  to  the  adjoining  woods,  but  were  ab- 
solutely incapable  of  migrating  from  one  continent  to 
another.  A  second  proof  of  aboriginal  presence  of  our 
native  races,  and,  consequently,  of  their  degeneration  on 
American  soil,  may  be  deduced  from  their  traditions, 
which  seem  to  establish  that  their  pilgrim  fathers  were 
near  relatives  of  Noe  ;  for,  indeed,  as  we  shall  notice 
farther  on,  several  of  them  were  well  versed  in  the 
biblical  lore  of  that  patriarch's  epoch.  According  to 
Ixtlilxochitl,  the  Toltec  tradition  relates  that,  after  the 
confusion  of  tongues  at  Babel,  the  seven  families  who 
spoke  the  Toltec  language  set  out  for  the  New  World, 
wandering  one  hundred  and  four  years  over  large  ex- 
tents of  land  and  water.^     Vntan,  the  supposed  founder 


i 


\ 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  18,  n.  40  ;  substantiated  by  several  authorities. 

m 


f 


•V  '     m 


i  i 


M 


lii' 


I  ';■ 


30()       HIKTORY    OF    AMERICA    UKFORp]   COLUMBUH. 

of  the  ancient  and  advanced  Maya  civilization,  is  said 
to  have  been  a  descendant  of  Noe,  and  to  have  assisted 
at  the  building  of  the  Tower  of  Babel.  After  the  con- 
fu.don  of  tongues  he  led  a  portion  of  the  dispersed  peo- 
ple to  America,  where  he  established  the  kingdom  of 
Chibalba  and  built  the  city  of  Palenque.^ 

We  know  that  wherever  continued  divine  doctrine 
does  not  uphold  a  nation,  this  nation  is  doomed  to  be 
misled  by  the  shortcomings  of  human  reason  and  by 
human  passions,  and  eventually  to  fall  into  barbarism ; 
and  we  fully  admit,  therefore,  that  the  American  natives 
of  the  sixteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries  may  be  the 
direct  descendants  of  the  wonderful  Mound- builders 
and  Cliff  Dwellers  and  of  the  highly  cultured  citizens 
of  the  kingdom  of  Chibalba. 

Yet  we  feel  rather  inclined  to  think  that  the  In- 
dian tribes,  which  since  five  centuries  are  being  replaced 
by  other  peoples,  themselves  displaced  or  exterminated 
more  ancient  and  equally  effete  nations.  Our  reasons 
are  not  such  as  an  historian  might  require, — recorded 
facts ;  but  if  we  follow  the  general  law,  that  nothing 
under  the  sun  is  new,^  and  that  history  repeats  itself, 
we  will  easily  admit  that  the  Western  Continent  has 
been  subjected  to  the  same  vicissitudes  as  the  Eastern, 
— namely,  that  one  nation  has  successively  driven  out 
another  whenever  the  weight  of  the  latter's  crimes 
was  full  in  the  balance  of  eternal  justice.  Repeat  d 
examples  of  this  are  striking  in  the  histories  of 
Persia,  Greece,  and  Italy,  not  to  speak  of  Palestine, 
Barbary,  Spain,  England,  and  Ireland.  In  fact,  we 
find  races  succeed  races  in  every  country  whose  history 
has  been  written,  as  we  see  them  yet  in  Africa  and  on 
our  continent,  where  not  only  the  black  and  the  red, 


^  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  27. 


'  Eccles.  i.  10. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIfJIN    OF   OUR    AHORIOINKS.       301 


id 
eel 
n- 

50- 

of 


but  even  some  fair  colonies,  are  vanishing  to  make  room 
for  others. 

Nor  is  it  the  general  philosophy  of  history  only  that 
bears  us  out  in  this  opinion.  Certain  actual  facts  convey 
the  same  conviction  to  the  most  learned  writers.  8ev- 
«ral  American  tribes  have  traditions,  others  had  hiero- 
glyphic records,  through  which  they  (^laini  to  have 
originally  come  from  foreign  lands — a  tradition  hardly 
possible  in  the  supposition  of  their  lineal  descent  from 
Americans  of  four  thousand  or  five  thousand  years  ago. 
Other  particulars  point  in  the  same  direction.  If  the 
continent  was  peopled  from  Asia,  it  was  necessarily 
from  younger  nations,  says  Dr.  Wilson.^  Emigration 
from  e.astern  Asia  only  took  place  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  fifth  century  of  the  Christian  era,  and  it  by  no 
means  aids  us  in  determining  the  origin  of  our  earliest 
population,  says  Tschudi.^ 

Colonel  Smith  thinks  that,  for  ages,  immigration  into 
America  has  been  as  it  is  now, — namely,  continuous, 
down  to  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.^  That 
the  new  settlers  arrived,  as  to-day,  from  widely  diflfer- 
ent  countries  and  peoples  is  not  less  probable. 

Some  authors,  with  Morton  as  their  leader,  have  as- 
serted that  the  resemblance  among  the  various  Ameri- 
can tribes  is  such  as  to  suggest  the  conclusion  that  they 
all  descend  from  the  aboriginal  parent-stock  ;  nay,  more 
than  one  has  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  them  specifically 
different  from  all  Old- World  nations,  and  New- World 
autochthones.  The  aborigines  of  the  Western  World, 
says  Prescott,  were  distinguished  by  certain  peculiari- 
ties of  organization  which  have  led  physiologists  to 
regard  them  as  a  separate  race.  These  peculiarities  are 
their  reddish  complexion,  approaching  to  a  cinnamon 


*  Prehistoric  Man,  p.  G15. 

»  P.  24,  ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  31. 


De  Quatrefages,  p.  238. 


iMi 


^•^;ili 


[<\  iS 


302       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

color;  their  straight,  black,  and  exceedingly  glossy  hair; 
their  beard,  thin,  and  usually  eradicated ;  their  high 
cheek-bones,  their  eyes  obliquely  directed  towards  the 
temples,  their  prominent  noses,  and  their  narrow  fore- 
heads falling  backward  with  a  greater  inclination  than 
those  of  any  other  race  except  the  African.  These 
characteristics  of  the  American  aborigines  are  found 
to  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Mongoloid 
race,  and  especially  to  the  people  of  eastern  Tartary.^ 

The  more  common  features  among  the  American  abo- 
rigines, and,  above  all,  the  color  which  distinguishes 
them  the  most  from  Old-World  races,  must  be  ascribed 
to  the  peculiar  conditions  of  life  on  our  continent. 
These  local  agencies  and  requirements  are  unable  to 
obliterate  all  hereditary  peculiarities,  but  constantly 
tend  to  introduce  some  uniform  special  characteristics. 
For  the  sake  of  illustration  we  here  copy  a  curious 
page  from  "  The  Human  Race"  of  the  illustrious  Pa- 
risian, Professor  de  Quatrefages  :  ^  "  The  English  race 
was  only  definitely  settled  in  the  IJnited  States  at  the 
time  of  the  Puritan  immigration  about  the  year  1620, 
and  of  the  arrival  of  Penn  in  1681.  Twelve  genera- 
tions, at  the  most,  £;eparat.e  us  from  this  epoch,  and, 
nevertheless,  the  Anglo-American,  the  Yankee,  no 
longer  resembles  his  ancestors.  The  fact  is  so  striking 
that  the  eminent  zoolr^gist  Andrew  Murray,  when  en- 
deavoring to  account  for  the  formation  of  animal  races, 
thinks  he  cannot  do  better  than  appeal  to  the  condition 
of  mankind  in  the  United  States. 

"  The  subject,  moreover,  is  not  wanting  in  precise  de- 
tails, which  are  vouched  for  by  a  number  of  travellers, 

*  On  nepeut>?e  refuser  ci'admettre  Humboldt,  Essai  Politique,  t.  i.  p. 

que  I'espSce  humaine  n'offre  paa  367,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mex- 

de  races  plus  voisines  que  le  sont  ico,  vol.  iii.  p.  385,  n.  68.) 

cf^lles  (k's  AmC'ricains,  des  Mongols,  '  Pp.  254,  255. 
des  Mantchoux  et  des  Malais.  ( Von 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR   ABORIGINES.      303 


by  naturalists  and  physicians.  At  the  second  genera- 
tion the  English  Creole  in  North  America  presents,  in 
his  features,  an  alteration  which  approximates  him  to 
the  native  races.  Subsequently  the  skin  dries  and  loses 
its  rosy  color,  the  glandular  system  is  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  the  hair  darkens  and  becomes  glossy,  the 
neck  becomes  slender,  and  the  size  of  the  head  di- 
minishes. In  the  face  the  temporal  fosses  become 
pronounced,  the  cheek-bones  prominent,  the  orbital 
cavities  hollow,  and  the  lower  jaw  massive.  The  bones 
of  the  extremities  are  elongated,  while  their  cavity  is 
diminished,  so  much  so  that  in  France  and  in  England 
gloves  are  specially  made  for  the  United  States,  with 
exceptionally  long  fingers.  Lastly,  in  the  woman  the 
pelvis,  in  its  proportions,  approaches  that  of  the  man. 

"  Are  these  changes  signs  of  a  degeneration  already 
accomplished  and  of  an  approaching  extinction,  as 
Knox  asserts  ?  I  think  a  reply  to  this  assumption  is 
hardly  necessary.  Although  modified,  the  physical 
type  is  not  lowered  in  the  scale  of  races.  The  \  ankee 
race,  formed  by  the  American  conditions  of  life,  remains 
worthy  of  its  elder  sisters  in  Europe. 

"  The  African  transported  into  our  country  has  also 
undergone  remarkable  changes.  His  color  has  paled, 
his  features  have  improved,  and  his  physiognomy  is 
altered;  '  In  the  space  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  years,' 
says  E.  Reclus,  '  he  has  passed  a  good  fourth  of  the 
distance  which  separates  him  from  the  whites,  so  far  as 
external  appearance  goes.'  Ly ell's  opinion  is  almost 
the  same.  Moreover,  after  visiting  two  negro  churches 
in  Savannah,  he  remarked  that  the  odor  so  character- 
istic of  the  race  was  scarcely  appreciable.  A  long 
medical  experience  in  New  Orleans  has  shown  Dr. 
Visinie  that  the  blood  of  the  negro  creole  has  lost  the 
excess  of  plasticity  which  it  possessed  in  Africa.     Let 


H 


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1/ 


V 


HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

US  add,  with  Reiset,  de  Lisboa,  and  even  Nott  and 
Gliddon,  that  while  the  physical  type  has  undergone 
modification,  the  intelligence  has  improved,  and  we  shall 
have  to  recognize  that  in  the  United  States  a  sub-negro 
race  has  been  formed,  derived  from  the  imported  stock." 

Thus  the  European  white  and  the  African  negro, 
when  under  the  influence  of  new  conditions  of  life, 
in  our  Republic,  have  both  undergone  modifications. 
Moreover,  both,  according  to  Reclus  and  Brasseur 
de  Bourbourg,  approximate  to  the  indigenous  races. 
Both  these  authors  seem  to  admit  that,  at  the  end  of  a 
given  time,  whatever  their  origin  may  be,  all  the  pos- 
terity of  American  immigrants  will  become  Red  Skins, 
and,  I  would  add,  not  be  any  worse  for  it,  provided 
the  unalterable  principles  of  religion  and  civilization 
be  guarded  inviolate. 

From  the  common  physical  standard  of  the  features  of 
our  modern  aborigines  there  are  deviations,  in  the  same 
manner,  if  not  to  the  same  extent,  as  in  other  quarters  of 
the  globe.  Thus  we  find,  amidst  the  general  prevalent 
copper  or  cinnamon  tint,  nearly  all  gradations  of  color, 
from  the  European  white  to  a  black,  almost  African, 
while  the  complexion  capriciously  varies  among  different 
tribes  in  the  neighborhood  of  one  another.^ 

The  ethnological  significance  of  the  color  of  our 
natives  has  often  been  and  is  yet  exaggerated.  De 
Quatrefages  correctly  remarks  ^  that,  of  the  four  groups 
into  which  the  colors  of  human  races  may  be  divided, 
the  least  characteristic  is  the  red.  On  the  one  hand,  in 
America,  the  Peruvian,  the  Araucanian  of  Chili,  and 
other  tribes  are  more  or  less  deep  brown  ;  the  Brazilio- 
Guaranians  are  of  a  yellowish  color  slightly  tinted  with 
red,  while  white  and  black  are  duly  represented,  as  we 


1  Prescott,   Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  pp.  384,  385,  and  notes,  ibid. 


»  P.  359. 


URAL-ALTAIC    ORIGIN    OF    OUR    ABORIGINES.       805 


shall  notice  soon.  On  the  other  hand,  in  Formosa 
Island  a  tribe  has  been  found  as  red  as  the  Algon- 
quins,  and  more  or  less  copper  tints  are  met  with 
among  Corean  and  African  populations. 

The  Mexicans  are  noticed  by  von  Humboldt,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  the  other  American  aborigines  whom 
he  has  seen,  by  the  quantity  of  beard  and  moustache.^ 

Bancroft,  who  at  one  time  is  in  favor  of  the  autoch- 
thonic  hypothesis,  states,  in  another  place,  that  the 
various  tribes  and  nations  differ  so  materially  from  one 
another  as  to  render  it  extremely  improbable  that  they 
are  derived  from  one  original  stock.'^  Vivier  de  Saint 
Martin,  who  wonders  at  the  uniform  dissimilarity  of 
our  Indians  from  all  the  nations  of  the  Eastern  Conti- 
nent, agrees,  however,  that  the  tribes  all  along  the 
Arctic  Ocean,  known  as  the  Esquimaux,  are  a  race  ab- 
solutely distinct  from  all  other  American  natives,  and 
that  the  Guaranis  of  Brazil  form  another  striking  ex- 
ception to  the  general  rule.^  "  That  America  was  peo- 
pled at  different  times,"  says  Nadaillac,*  "  by  scions  of 
different  races  is  highly  probable,  from  the  physical 
differences  to  be  observed  between  the  remains  of  its 
prehistoric  man  and  the  complexion  and  features  he 
bequeathed  to  his  historic  descendants."  Bradford  * 
also  believes  the  Americans  to  have  originated  from 
many  sources  and  stocks.  Horn  **  said  already  that  the 
American  natives  are  a  mixture  of  other  adventitious 
nations,  as  appears  from  the  great  differences  in  their 
bodily  features,  in  their  customs  and  innumerable  di- 


111 


it.  i! 


'  Essai  Politique,  t.  i.  p.  SGI,  ap. 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
iii.  p.  384,  n.  (14. 

"Vol.  V.  pp.9,  181. 

*  Nouveau  Dictionnaire  de  Geo- 
graphie  Universelle,  art.  Aui^rique, 
Ethnologie. 
I.— 20 


*  P.  5.S1. 

'  Ainericau  Antiquitiew,  p.  423, 
quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  59, 
n.  128. 

•  Lib.  i.  cap.  iii.  p.  23. 


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806       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFOIIE   COLUMBUS. 

verse  languages.  Rafinesque/  an  indefatigable  in- 
quirer, more  particularly  specifies  these  differences 
when  he  writes  :  "  American  anthropography  teaches 
that  there  were  men  of  all  sizes,  features,  and  com- 
plexions in  this  hemisphere  before  a.d.  1492,  notwn'th- 
standing  the  false  assertions  of  many  v,^riters,  who  take 
one  iiaLion  for  the  whole  American  group." 

The  Uskihs,  the  Puruays,  the  Parias,  the  Chons, 
etc.,  were  as  white  as  the  Spaniards,  and  fifty  such 
tribes  were  found  in  South  America.  Along  the  whole 
of  the  northwest  coast  Meares,  Marchand,  La  Porouse, 
Dixon,  and  Maurelle  have  observed  populations  which, 
judging  from  some  of  their  descriptions,  we  would  take 
to  be  of  pure  white  ancestry.  On  the  upper  Missouri 
the  Kiawas,  Kaskaias,  and  the  Lee  Panis  possess,  we 
are  assured,  the  attributes  of  the  purest  white  races,  in- 
cluding their  fair  hair.^  The  Mandans  have,  from  our 
present  point  of  view,  always  attracted  attention.  Cap- 
tain Graah,  again,  found  in  Greenland  men  sj^eaking 
Esquimau,  but  tall,  thin,  and  fair,  and  evidently  of 
Scandinavian  descent.  Ferdinand  Colnmbus,  in  his 
Relation  of  his  father's  voyages,  compares  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Guanahani  to  the  Canary  Islanders,  and 
describes  the  inhabitants  of  San  Domingo  as  still  more 
beautiful  and  fair.  In  Peru  the  Charazanis  also  re- 
semble the  Canary  Islanders,  and  differ  from  all  the 
surrounding  tribes.'* 

On  the  contrary,  many  tribes  of  Choco,  the  Mana- 
bis,  the  Yaruras,  and  others  were  as  black  as  Negroes. 
Father  Roman,  one  of  the  first  twelve  missionaries  after 
Columbus's  discovery,  states  that  a  black  people  came 


>  Pp.  57,  193. 

^  Sergeant  Patrick  Gas»,  a  niein- 
ber  of  the  a.d.  1 804-1  WXi  LewiH-and- 
Clark  exiiloration,  states  that  the 


Tussapa  band  of  the  Fhvthead  na- 
tion were  ' '  the  whitest  Indians  he 
ever  saw."     (A  Journal,  p.  \M.) 
'  De  Quatrefages,  p.  200. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR    ABORIGINES.       307 

to  Hayti  from  the  South  or  Southeast,  who  had  darts 
of  guanin, — a  comj)osition  of  gold,  silver,  and  copper, — 
and  were  called  the  Black  Guaninis.  These  might 
have  been  the  Negroes  of  Quareca  mentioned  by  Peter 
Martyr  d' Angleria,  or  some  other  American  negro  nation, 
the  like  of  which  there  were  many,  as  we  may  see  in 
Ratinesque's  "  Account  of  the  Ancient  Black  Nations 
of  America."  Such  are  the  Charruas  of  Brazil,  the 
black  Carabees  of  St.  Vincent  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
the  Jamassi  of  Florida,  the  dark-complexioned  Califor- 
nians,  who  are  perhaps  the  dark  men  mentioned  in 
Quiche  traditions,  and  by  some  old  Spanish  adven- 
turers. Such,  again,  is  the  tribe  of  which  Balboa  saw 
some  representatives  in  his  ])assage  of  the  Isthmus  of 
Darien  in  the  year  1513.  It  would  seem,  from  the 
expressions  made  use  of  by  Gomara,  that  these  were 
Negroes.  This  type  was  well  known  to  the  Spaniards, 
and,  if  they  had  encountered  black  men  with  glossy 
hair,  like  the  Charruas,  they  would  undoubtedly  have 
been  impressed  by  it  and  would  have  mentioned  the 
fact.^  All  the  other  shades  of  brown,  tawny,  and 
coppery  were  scattered  everywhere. 

Women  as  fair  as  English  milkmaids  were  found  in 
Central  America.  Along  the  northwest  coast  dwell 
numerous  tribes  which,  according  to  accounts,  must 
be  widely  distinguished  from  the  Indians  of  the  in- 
terior. The  Tlinket  or  Koloshian  family,  consisting 
of  several  tribes,  are  represented  as  lighter-colored  than 
any  other  North  American  aborigines.  They  have,  in- 
deed, been  described  as  having  as  fair  a  complexion, 
when  their  skins  are  washed,  as  some  inhabitants  of 
Europe  ;  and  this  feature,  accompanied  sometimes  with 
auburn  hair,  has  been  considered  as  indicating  an  origin 
different  from  that  of  the  copper-colored  tribes.'^ 


De  Quatrefagep.  p.  200. 


2  Wincliell,  p.  32«. 


II 


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308       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Wiucliell  further  adds  that  Dr.  Morton  insisted 
upon  the  racial  unity  of  the  American  aborigines  and 
their  distinctness  from  the  Mongoloids.  In  dissenting 
from  positions  so  generally  accepted  on  the  high  author- 
ity of  Dr.  Morton,  I  have  the  support  of  recent  ethno- 
logical writers  of  the  highest  rank.  Professor  Retzius, 
a  pioneer  in  exact  craniometry,  says,  "  It  is  scarcely 
possible  to  find  anywhere  a  more  distinct  distribution 
into  dolichocephali  and  brachycephali  than  in  America. 
From  all  that  I  have  been  able  to  observe,  I  have 
arrived  at  the  opinion  that  the  dolichocephalic  form 
prevails  in  the  Carib  Islands  and  in  the  whole  eastern 
part  of  the  American  continent,  from  the  extreme 
northern  limits  to  Paraguay  and  Uruguay  in  the 
South  ;  while  the  brachycephalic  prevails  in  the  Aleu- 
tian Islands  and  on  the  main-land,  from  the  latitude 
of  Behring  Strait,  through  Oregon,  Mexico,  Ecuador, 
Peru,  Bolivia,  Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and 
Patagonia,  to  Terra  del  Fuego."  ^  The  brachycephalic 
tribes  of  America  are  found,  for  the  most  part,  on  that 
side  of  the  continent  which  looks  towards  Asia  and  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  they  seem  to  be  related  to 
the  Mongol  races.  Dr.  Daniel  Wilson  has  advanced 
very  singular  views,  and  has  supplied  tables  of  measure- 
ments from  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  skulls,  by 
which  the  question  is  placed  beyond  all  possible  con- 
troversy.^ Some  tribes  had  scanty  beards,  like  Tar- 
tars, Chinese,  Berbers  ;  others  had  bushy  beards.  The 
Tinguis  or  Patagonians  were  from  seven  to  eight  feet 
high,  while  the  Guaymas  measured  only  from  four  to 
five  feet. 

The  reader  has  noticed  already  the  great  diflferences 

'  Retzina,  Pret^ent  State  of  Eth-     Smithsonian  Annual  Report,  1859, 
nology  in  Relation  to  the  Form  of     pp.  2()4-2()7. 
the   Human  Skull,   translated  for        "  Winchell,  p.  338. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR    ABORIGINES.      809 


which  existed  among  the  numerous  and  antagonistic 
tribes  of  our  continent  in  regard  to  religious  and  social 
institutions  or  the  absence  of  these.  Winchell  is  led  by 
his  contempt  for  the  black  race  to  declare  the  Amer- 
ican aborigines  to  be  of  one  and  the  same  Mongoloid 
stock,  carrying  water  on  both  shoulders,  when  he  says,^ 
"  The  ethnic  characters  of  the  Mongoloids  are  traced 
throughout  the  two  Americas  in  a  considerable  diver- 
sity of  color-shades,  features,  and  social  conditions,  and 
an  immense  diversification  of  dialects,  especially  upon 
the  northern  continent."  He  notes  how  Major  Powell 
insists  that  *'  North  America  furnishes  more  than  sev- 
enty-five stocks  of  languages,  and  how  it  is  generally 
agreed  that  the  languages  of  the  feral  tribes  of  South 
America  are  at  least  equally  diversified."  He  goes  so 
tar  as  to  say,  in  spite  of  what  he  wrote  four  lines  before, 
that "  the  most  divergent  of  the  American  types  is  prob- 
ably that  of  the  Innuit  or  Esquimau,  which  might  with 
jiropriety  be  regarded  as  standing  for  a  distinct  race, 
and  is  sometimes  so  separated."  He  adds,  "  Compared 
with  the  continental  Indians,  Professor  Dall  says,  the 
strength  and  activity  of  the  Orarians — i.e.,  the  Innuit, 
Tuski,  Aleuts,  and  Esquimaux  along  the  sea-coast — 
far  exceed  those  of  any  northern  Indians  with  whom 
I  am  acquainted.  They  are  much  more  intelligent 
and  superior  in  every  essential  respect.  At  no  point 
does  there  seem  to  be  any  intercourse  between  the  Es- 
quimaux and  the  Indians  except  in  the  way  of  trade. 
They  never  intermarry." "  The  fact  is,  that  their  lan- 
guages— the  great  characteristic  of  nations — differ  no 
less  than  the  other  distinguishing  variations  of  the 
American  tribes. 

On  no  other  continent,  says  Bancroft,^  can  there  be 


/ 


»  P.  320. 

»  Wmchell,  pp.  P.21,  :522. 


'  Vol.  iii.  p.  5.").'?, 


fur. 


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310       HI8T0RY.  OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

found  such  a  multitude  of  distinct  languages,  which 
approach  one  another  in  scarcely  a  single  word  or  syl- 
lable, as  in  America ;  and  it  is  easy  to  prove  from 
linguistics  that  the  nations  of  the  New  World  were 
originally  thrown  together  from  different  parts/ 

A  friend  of  ours  had  spent  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  useful  life  in  evangelizing  the  native  tribes  of  a  rel- 
atively small  district  about  the  common  confines  of 
Idaho,  Washington,  and  Oregon  ;  and  when  in  the  year 
1887  he  entered  our  county  to  take  charge  of  the 
Umatillas,  he  told  us  that  now  he  was  compelled  to  go 
to  work  to  study  his  seventh  Indian  language,  no  two 
of  which  appeared  to  have  anything  in  common. 

Payne "  makes  a  similar  statement  in  regard  to  other 
portions  of  America.  "  Side  by  side,"  he  says,  "  in  many 
parts  there  still  exist  tribes  speaking  languages  devoid 
of  all  apparent  resemblance.  Among  the  thirty-five 
languages  of  Mexico,  for  example,  the  Mexican,  Otomi, 
Tarascan,  Mayan,  and  Miztec  seem  to  have  no  words 
whatever  in  common,  and  the  Otomi  differs  from  all 
others  in  being  not  agglutinative  but  monosyllabic." 
The  languages  of  the  present  New  Mexico  prove  that 
the  people  speaking  them  were  subdivided  into  three, 
or  even  four,  distinct  races,"^  and  Prescott  remarks  that 


*  What  strikes  one  most  forci- 
bly is  the  vast  number  of  American 
languages.  Adelung,  in  his  "  Mith- 
ridates,"  put  the  number  at  twelve 
hundred  and  sixty-four,  and  Lude- 
wig,  in  his  ' '  Literature  of  the  Amer- 
ican Languages,"  put  it  roundly  at 
eleven  hundred.  Squier  on  the 
other  hand,  was  content  with  four 
hundred.  The  discrepancy  arises 
from  the  fact  that  where  one  scholar 
sees  two  or  three  distinct  languiiges, 
another  sees  two  or  three  dialects  of 
one  language.    (Fiske,  vol.  i.  p.  38. ) 

"It  has  been  estimated  that  more 


than  twelve  hundred  languiiges 
were  spoken  in  the  two  Americas. 
Some  of  these  were  dialects  ;  but 
even  these  differed  widely  from  the 
parent  tongue  in  vocabulary.  .  .  . 
They  all  differed  whoilj^  from  one 
another  in  vocabulary,  and  there 
was  also  structurally  great  diversity 
amongthem."  ThusHntson.  (The 
Story  of  Language,  pp.  141,  142.) 

^  P.  U)G ;  cf.  Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  379. 

*  Gatschet  and  Harvey,  ap.  Na- 
daillac,  in  Donahoe's  Magazine, 
vol.  XXXV.  p.  ()78. 


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UKAL-ALTAIC    UKIGIN    OF   OUK    AIIOKIGINKH.       811 


South  Aiiieric'ii,  like  North  America,  is  broken  up  into 
a  great  variety  of  tlialects,  or  rather  languages,  having 
little  affinity  with  one  another.^ 

Dr.  Jaeker  contends^  that  the  Algic  tongue  has  many 
affinities  with  the  Semitic  family  ;  yet  it  is  generally  con- 
sidered that  most  American  languages  are  not  inflective 
or  Indo-European  but  agglutinative  or  Turanian,^  and 
introduced,  according  to  Maltebrun,*  by  the  Perms,  the 
Finns,  and  the  Tartar  tribes  of  northern  Siberia. 

We  have  given  an  idea  of  some  ancient  nations  that 
inhabited  our  hemisphere  in  prehistoric  times,  and  it  is 
a  fact  sufficiently  proved  that  America  had  also  her 
quaternary  man.  Since  geological  revolutions  do  not 
involve  the  disappearance  of  existing  human  races, 
there  can  hardly  be  a  doubt  that  in  America  there  are 
descendants  still  of  men  who  were  contemporary  with 
the  mastodon,  just  as  in  Europe  we  find  the  descendants 
of  those  who  were  contemporaries  of  the  mammoth.  But 
it  is  highly  probable  that  the  most  pronounced  ethno- 
logical elements,  such  as  yellow,  white,  and  black,  which 
we  encounter  at  l^e  present  time,  have  overspread 
this  continent  by  means  of  later  immigration.  This 
fact  is  proved  by  history  in  a  certain  number  of  cases.' 
De  Quatrefages  is  of  the  opinion  that  our  modern  Red 
Skins,  in  the  basin  of  the  Missouri,  date  only  from  the 


*  Conquest  of  Pern,  vol.  i.  p.  80. 

''  Aii.er.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol. 
iii.  p.  255. 

'  For  examples  of  this  language, 
see  Document  XI.,  a,  6,  c,  d,  c. 
The  Turanian  family  of  languages 
is  termed  by  Duponceau  the  poly- 
synthetic  system ;  by  von  Hum- 
boldt, the  agglutinative  ;  by  Lieber, 
the  holophrastic.  Others  call  it 
the  aggregative,  the  incorporative 
language.  Mr.  Forchhanmier  has 
published  a  truly  scientific  compar- 


ison of  the  granunatical  structure 
of  the  Choctaw,  Chickasaw,  Musko- 
gee, and  Seminole  languages,  with 
the  I'ral-Altaic  tongues,  in  which 
he  develops  man\'  interesting 
points  of  resemblance.  (Congres 
des  Americanistes,  Luxembourg, 
1877,  t.  ii.  p.  50  ;  Short,  p.  49(). ) 

*  Geografia  Universale,  t.  v.  p. 
207. 

''  De  Quatrefages,  The  Human 
Species,  p.  201. 


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312        HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    HKFORK    COLUMBUS. 


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ninth,  or  at  most  from  the  eighth  century  of  our  era/ 
l)ut  the  Algoiujuin  tribes  are  certainly  okler.'^ 

Payne"'  condenses  the  conclusions  of  his  predecessors 
when  he  states  the  American  aborigines  and  their  lan- 
guage to  be  of  Turanian  origin.  They  were  driven,  he 
says,  by  the  ('aucasian  race  from  Europe  and  the  greater 
part  of  Asia  into  our  western  hemisphere.  Charles  Her- 
bermann  singularly  strengthens  this  statement  when, 
in  a  learned  essay,*  he  writes  :  "  Modern  research  has 
proved  beyond  a  doubt  that  the  Babylonians  and  As- 
syrians, as  well  as  the  later  Chaldeans,  were  of  Semitic 
extraction.  But  these  Semitic  nations  were  not  the 
original  inhabitants  of  the  country  watered  by  the  two 
great  rivers  of  Mesopotamia,  nor  were  the  culture  and 
learning  of  Babylon  and  Ninive  built  up  by  them.  To 
the  Sumirians  and  Accadians  belongs  this  proud  honor. 
Before  Babylon  became  the  capital  of  a  great  Semitic 
empire  the  kingdom  of  Sumir  and  Accad  had  flourished 
and  passed  away.  .  .  .  Who  were  these  Sumirians, 
whose  very  names  were  unknown  to  our  fathers  ?  Op- 
pert,  Lenormant,  Sayce,  Schrader,  Tiele,  Hommel, 
Haupt,  Winckler,  Kaulen,  all  agree  that  they  were  a 
race  nowise  allied  to  the  Semites.  According  to  many 
assyriologists  they  belonged  to  the  Ural-Altaic  or  Tar- 
tar family  of  peoples,  the  same  to  which  belong  the 
European  Hungarians  or  Magyars,  the  Turks,  and  the 
Finns  in  Europe.  Their  language  was  agglutinative. 
From  them  the  Seriitic  Babylonians  borrowed  their  art, 
their  science,  and  their  system  of  writing."  These  Su- 
mirians, however,  and,  in  fact,  most  nations  of  the  Ural- 
Altaic  family,  have  become  singularly  degraded  since 
the  days  of  their  power  and  culture  on  the  banks  of 


^  De    Quatrefages,    The    Human 
Species,  p.  207. 
-  Supra,  p.  113,  w(j. 


'  P.  160. 
*  Ainer.   Gath 
xviii.  p.  450. 


Quar.    Rev.,  vol. 


wmmm^^ 


ural-altak;  origin  of  our  aborigines.    813 

the  Euphrates,  as  we  find  it  Htated  by  both  ancient  clas- 
sic's and  modern  historians ;  and  all  the  information  we 
have  of  this  fallen  race  affords  strong  indications  that 
our  latest  aborigines,  taken  in  general,  belong  to  the 
same. 

Not  only  the  similarity  of  language,  but  the  facial 
features  also,  and  the  whole  frame  of  body  are  evidences, 
says  Assal,'  that  the  American  Indians  descend  from 
north- Asiatic  nations.  The  Tar'tar  race-type,  with  its 
dull  physiognomy,  reddish-brown  skin,  beardless  chin, 
and  cold  and  impassive  temperament,  is  common  to  all 
American  natives.  The  main  type  has  undergone 
countless  local  variations,  but  the  Turanian  man  has 
reached  his  perfect  development  in  Kentucky  and 
Virginia,  says  Payne.^  Assal  ^  states  that  the  Chero- 
kees,  the  Osages,  and  the  Miamis  very  strikingly  re- 
semble the  people  of  Asiatic  Tartary  ;  and  Horn  *  makes 
a  similar  remark  regarding  the  Appalaches  and  the 
Peruvian  Tambos. 

Herodotus^  wrote  already  of  a  Turanian  nation,  of 
the  Scythians,  that  they  had  no  towns,  no  fortified 
places ;  that  they  took  their  dwellings — that  is,  their 
wagons — with  them  wherever  they  would  go  ;  that  they 
were  good  horsemen  and  bowmen,  living,  not  on  bread, 
but  on  the  flesh  of  animals."  Horace  calls  them  fugi- 
tives.^ Tacitus  *  writes  of  the  Finns,  who  are  another 
branch  of  the  Ural-Altaic  stock  in  the  North  of  Europe, 
that  they  were  extraordinarily  barbarous  and  shame- 
fully poor ;  without  weapons,  horses,  or  houses ;  sub- 
sisting on  herbs,  dressing  in  skins,  and  sleeping  on  the 
ground.     We  might  ask  whether  the  remarks  of  those 


*.l 


'  S.  82. 

»  P.  165. 

'  8.  82. 

*  Lib.  iii.  cap.  x.  p.  176. 

» 484-408  B.C. 


*  Histor.,  lib.  iv. 
'  Lib.  i. ,  ode  35. 

*  Gerinaiiia,  quoted  by  Jonbain- 
ville,  Les  premiers  habitants  de 
1' Europe,  cb.  i.  p.  1.3,  u. 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
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314       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ancient  authors  do  not  correctly  apply  to  the  mode  of 
life  of  our  American  natives  ? 

From  the  identity  of  various  peculiar  customs  among 
our  Indians  and  the  people  of  ancient  Scythia,  Horn  ^ 
concludes  the  identity  of  their  origin ;  and,  indeed,  no 
one  will  deny  that  habits  like  the  one  reported  by  Las 
Casas  ^  are  as  characteristic  as  filthy.  The  natives  of 
Hispaniola  had  a  very  nasty  habit,  he  says, — namely, 
they  ate  the  lice  of  their  heads,  pretending  that  the 
vermin  was  born  from  their  flesh  and  blood,  and  that 
by  eating  it  they  restored  to  themselves  what  had  been 
stolen  from  them.  Nor  are  they  the  only  people  on 
earth  to  indulge  in  such  repulsive  diet ;  for,  according 
to  Mustero,  in  the  Fifth  Book  of  his  Universal  Cosmog- 
raphy, the  Tartars,  like  the  apes,  eat  one  another's 
vermin,  not  only  from  the  head,  but  from  any  part 
of  the  body  where  they  may  catch  it ;  and  the  same 
habit  exists  among  the  Budini  of  Scythia. 

Painting  the  body  may  be  considered  as  anccher 
racial  peculiarity,  and  it  might  lead  us  to  think  that 
the  American  aborigines  are  allied  to  the  Caucasian 
family,  whose  fairest  specimens,  even  until  this  day, 
bedaub  and  destroy  their  native  beauty  with  unwhole- 
some painting  stuff;  were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  our 
deceiving  belles  delight  in  pale  consumptive  tones, 
while  the  rude  Indian  warrior  gives  his  preference  to 
gaudy  hues  that  outshine  his  natural  colors.  We  are 
not  aware  that  the  custom  of  using  paint  instead  of 
clothing  ever  belonged  to  the  people  of  Great  Tartary, 
but  it  was  common  with  an  ancient  nation  of  Scotland, 
therefore  called  the  Picts,  Picti  or  Painted,  who  were 
one  of  the  Scythian  tribes  that  immigrated  into 
northern  Europe,  arriving  at  the  British  Isles  in  the 


'  Lib.  iii.  cap.  x.  p.  178. 


*  Coleccion   de    Docnmentoa,    t. 
Ix\i.  ;  Hifitoria  de  las  Indias,  p.  504. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR    ABORIGINES.       315 


of 


year  87  of  our  era,  after  having  passed  along  the  glacial 
coasts  and  islands  of  the  Eastern  Continent/ 

All  these  resemblances  are  striking,  indeed ;  but  the 
shocking  features  of  Tartar  ferocity  are  so  much  alike 
to  our  natives'  barbarism  that  we  can  hardly  doubt 
the  identity  of  both  nations.  Patagonian  women  were, 
and  are  likely  yet,  put  to  death  as  soon  as  their  fertile 
years  were  over.  When  a  cacique  or  chief  in  Hayti 
was  suffering  with  a  fatal  sickness  his  people  respect- 
fully hanged  him ;  ^  and  when  one  of  his  tribe  was  in 
danger  of  death  it  was  his  right  to  decide  that  he 
should  be  hanged.  Several  Indians  are  yet  in  the  habit 
of  carrying  their  dying  people  to  the  neighboring 
woods,  allowing  them  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  to 
return  if  they  may.  The  ancient  inhabitants  of  Ice- 
land, of  Ural-Altaic  origin,  simply  killed  their  old  and 
sickly  folks ;  *  and  the  Laplanders,  another  Scythian 
nation,  abandon  their  old  sick  people  along  the  road 
to  die.* 

Would  that  the  heartlessness  of  the  Turanian  race 
should  have  stopped  at  their  maltreatment  of  dying 
persons,  but  strength  and  health  were  enticements  for 
their  more  inhuman  cruelty.  Europe  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, with  its  men,  women,  and  children,  has  been 
mowed  down  by  them.  Nor  were  they  satisfied  with 
murdering  their  victims,  but,  as  our  Indians,  they  ex- 
ercised their  barbarity  upon  the  corpses,  taking  along, 
as  proofs  of  their  valor,  the  scalps  of  the  slain,*  and, 
as  the  Mexicans,  putting  on,  as  a  garment  of  honor, 
the  fresh  skin  of  their  enemies  flayed  alive.  Already 
Herodotus  gives  an  account  of  scalping  done  by  the 


t. 

504. 


'  LeHcarbot,  liv.  vi.  ch.  x.  p.  809. 
'  Washington  Irving,  lib.  vi.  cap. 
X.  p.  480. 
'  ProcopiuH,  Pe  Bello  Gothico. 


*  Vincent,  Norsk,  S.  139. 
"  Maltebrun,  t.  v.  p.  212 ;  Lescar- 
bot,  p.  721. 


f 


l«i.%!»#«i^4;iS.i!lJ^V?<,i!-.afc«.^.,/i 


bi 


>\  i 


\il 


hi 


p  , 


1  '■      '      i 

jVf 

1 ' ' 

316       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Scythians,  and  shows  that  they  wore  the  hideous  trophy 
in  the  same  manner  as  our  North  American  aborigines.^ 
Tlie  soldiers  of  Cortfe  were  horror-stricken  in  seeing 
the  human  skulls  that  had  accumulated  around  the 
temples  of  Mexico ;  but  Tamerlane  had  his  Turkestans 
to  erect  around  the  vanquished  city  of  Ispahan  trophies 
consisting  of  seventy  thousand  bleeding  human  heads  ; 
and  only  two  centuries  ago  Nadir  of  Khorasan  ordered 
his  Tartars  to  pile  up,  like  canon-balls  in  an  arsenal, 
the  heads  of  defenceless  people,  all  along  his  murderous 
path  and  on  the  tops  of  religious  edifices,  whenever  he 
would  enter  a  city  of  conquered  India  or  Persia.'^ 
Gibbon  ^  notices  three  such  collections,  thus  fancifully 
disposed,  of  these  grinning  horrors, — in  all,  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty  thousand  heads  piled  up ! 

The  Scythians,  according  to  Herodotus,  sacrificed,  as 
the  Mexicans,  to  their  bloodthirsty  deities  a  considerable 
number  of  prisoners  taken  in  war ;  and,  as  in  Mexico, 
the  sacrifice  took  place  on  the  summit  of  a  pyramidal 
monument,  and  the  corpses  were  cast  down  around  its 
base.  The  brutal  mode  of  immolation  was  identical,  as 
we  may  infer  from  one  of  the  laws  of  Djengys-Khan, 
— namely,  by  tearing  the  palpitating  heart  from  the 
victim's  cloven  breast.*  Mallet^  states  that,  as  in 
Mexico  and  Peru  wives  and  servants  were  slain  and 
buried  with  their  masters,  so  it  was  customary  with  the 
Scythian  inhabitants  of  ancient  Scandinavia  to  burn 
the  wives  of  a  dead  man  together  with  his  corpse. 

The  most  disgraceful  feature  of  American  savagery 
itself  was  not  wanting  in  the  type  of  the  parent-stock. 


||; 

P 

Itl 

'  Histor.,  Melpomene,  sec.  M,  ap. 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.  p.  48,  n.  38,  and  Southall,  p.  40. 

■''  Maltebrun,  t.  v.  i>.  721 ;  Kast- 
ner,  p.  110. 


'  Decline  and  Fall,  ed.  Milman, 
vol.  i.  p.  52 ;  vol.  xii.  p.  45,  ap. 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
ii.  p.  148,  n.  m. 

*  Kastner,  pp.  109,  IIJJ,  n.  1. 

«  T.  i.  p.  :joo. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF    OUR   ABORIGINES.       317 


Cannibalism  was  practised  in  Scythia.  Strabo  already, 
with  several  other  historians,  asserts  that  it  was  from 
Scythia  that  the  horrible  custom  first  spread  into  other 
parts  of  the  world/  Marco  Polo  notices  a  civilized 
people  in  southeastern  China  and  another  in  Japan 
who  drank  the  blood  and  ate  the  flesh  of  their  captives, 
esteeming  it  the  most  savory  food  in  the  world ;  "^  and  the 
Mongols,  according  to  Sir  John  Mandeville,  regarded 
the  ears  "sowced  in  vynegre"  as  an  exquisite  delicacy.^ 
Cannibalism  evidently  spread  from  Scythia  into  the 
countries  that  were  settled  by  Scythian  emigrants ;  and 
thus  it  is  well  known  that  it  raged  at  one  time  in  the 
northern  portions  of  Europe,  invaded,  as  we  shall  pres- 
ently see,  by  the  Scythian  or  Turanian  race.  "  We 
felt  happy  to  learn,"  Pope  John  IX.  or  X.  writes  to 
Heriveus,  bishop  of  Rheims,  "that  the  Northmen, 
who  used  to  feast  on  human  blood,  have,  through  your 
exhortations  and  the  divine  assistance,  been  brought 
to  r^ijoice  at  having  been  redeemed  and  refreshed  by 
the  ambrosian  blood  of  Christ.*  Anderson  ®  likewise 
asserts  that,  as  the  native  Greenlanders,  Skraelings,  or 
Esquimaux,  so  also  the  Finns,  of  Scythian  or  Tartar 
origin,  were  addicted  to  cannibalism. 


'  Conunanducandoniin  homimim 
niorem  Scytharuni  esHe  traditur. 
(Strabo,  lib.  iv.  et  lib.  vi. )  Annque 
alguna«  naciones  usaron  coiner 
carne  humana,  pero  la  fuente  de 
toda  esta  beatialidad  fueron  los 
Scythas.  (Coleccion  de  Documen- 
tos,  t.  Ixvi.  B.  de  laa  Casas,  p.  513  ; 
Boletfn,  t.  xxi.  p.  308. ) 

*  Viaggi,  lib.  ii.  cap.  Ixxv.,  ap. 
Preficott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
iii.  p.  374,  11.  38. 

*  Voiage,  ch.  xxiii.,  ap.  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  374, 
n.  38. 


*  Joannes,  etc. ,  revereiitissimo 
confratri  iiostro  Heriveo  Rhemorum 
Archiepiscopo  .  .  .  Extitimus  .  .  . 
gjiudentes,  siquidem  de  ipsa  gente 
Northmannoruni,  quae  ad  fideni, 
divina  inspirant©  dementia,  con- 
versa,  oVwn  humano  sanguine  grcuisata, 
nunc  vero  vestris  exhortationi- 
bus,  Domino  cooperante,  ambrosio 
Christi  sanguine  se  gaudet  fore  re- 
demptain  atque  potfttani.  (Migne, 
t.  cxxxi.  col.  27,  from  Mansi,  Con- 
ciliomm  Generaliuni,  t.  xviii.) 

'  Nachrichten,  p.  284. 


vcUk^ij, 


ji 


i! 


m  ' 


m 


318       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

This  last  characteristic  degradation  of  both  the  Amer- 
ican aborigines  and  of  the  Scythians  was  by  itself  suffi- 
cient to  let  Las  Casas  suspect  that  the  latter  people 
must  have  come  over  and  settled  a  portion  of  our  con- 
tinent, although  he  had  hardly  any  ground  to  guess  at 
the  route  which  they  might  have  followed.^  General 
Cass  wrote  in  the  same  manner  in  the  year  1829 :  ^ 
"  That  the  American  Indian  tribes  are  branches  of  the 
great  Tartar  stock  is  generally  believed  at  the  present 
day.  Many  points  of  resemblance,  both  physical  and 
moral,  leave  little  doubt  upon  the  subject.  But  why, 
when,  or  by  what  route  they  were  conducted  from  the 
plains  of  Asia  to  those  of  America  it  were  vain  to 
inquire  and  impossible  to  tell." 

We  have,  however,  more  information  on  this  latter 
point  to-day,  and  it  is  generally  admitted  that  the  an- 
cestors of  the  greatest  number  of  American  aborigines 
have,  in  their  migrations  from  the  Old  to  the  New 
World,  taken  first  a  northward  course,  when  driven  by 
the  Semitic  race  from  the  Asiatic  southern  and  central 
countries,^  and,  when  reaching  the  coast  of  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  have  divided  themselves  into  two  bodies,  trav- 
elling farther  on, — the  one  westward  and  the  other  in 
an  easterly  direction, — to  meet  again  in  the  icy  regions 
of  the  western  hemisphere.*  ^ 

All  authors  agree  that  American  immigrants  have 
passed  through  the  sterile  cold  countries  of  the  North, 
where  Divine  Providence  has  so  disposed  islands  and 


>'! 


'  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t. 
Ixvi.  B.  de  las  Qisas,  p.  513. 

*  Historical  Sketches  of  Michi- 
gan, p.  110,  ap.  Aiiier.  Cath. 
Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  704. 

'  According  to  Guatenialian  tra- 
ditions the  first  immigrants  of  that 
coimtry  left  Asia  when  the   tyr- 


anny of  their  neighbors  had  be- 
come intolerable.  ( Congres  Sclent. , 
viii.  sec.  p.  108,  ref.  to  de  Quatre- 
fages,  Histoire  G^n^rale  des  Races 
humaines,  p.  588.  Supra,  p.  312.) 
*  Horn,  lib.  iii.  cap.  v.  p.  151  ; 
Aa.  i)as8im. 


.i^^-Ji^-.:.-" 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF    OUR    ABORIGINES.       319 


,.,; 


■-■'•i 


capes  as  to  form  gigantic  bridges  between  the  Eastern 
and  the  Western  Continent. 

The  Ciiipeways  have  a  tradition  that  they  came  from 
a  distant  land  where  a  bad  people  lived,  and  had  to 
cross  a  long,  narrow  lake  filled  with  islands,  where  ice 
and  snow  never  melted  away.*  If  the  "  Popol  Vuh," 
the  sacred  book  of  the  Quiches,  deserves  the  impor- 
tance that  some  writers  attach  to  it,  it  will  be  worth 
while  to  translate  a  few  lines  which  confirm  the  fore- 
going opinion.  The  various  Quiche  tribes  on  their  way 
had  assembled  at  "  Tulan  Zuiva,"  the  Seven  Caves, 
which  must  have  been  in  the  far  North,  for  "the 
people  could  not  stand  the  frost ;  they  were  trembling 
with  cold  and  chattering  teeth,  their  hands  and  feet 
were  benumbed,  so  that  they  could  keep  a  hold  of 
nothing  when  they  arrived  there.  Rain  and  sleet  ex- 
tinguished their  fires.  They  finally  left  the  country 
where  the  sun  rises  [that  is,  travelled  westward]  ;  but 
their  hearts  were  sighing.  Alas  !  they  said,  in  leaving, 
we  will  no  more  see  the  dawn  announce  the  rising  sun 
that  illumines  the  face  of  the  earth.  Some  of  them 
were  left  behind  on  the  way,  for  some  remained  asleep 
there,  while  each  tribe  always  arose  to  espy  the  sun's 
messenger-star.  This  herald  of  the  break  of  day  was 
constantly  before  their  minds  when  they  came  from  the 
parts  where  the  sun  does  rise,  from  far  away,  as  we  are 
now  told.  They  came  this  way,  as  if  they  had  no  ocean 
to  cross,  for  they  walked  on  scattered  stones,  that  were 
rolling  on  the  sands.  Full  of  anguish,  they  were 
unable  to  sleep,  and,  waiting  for  the  dawn,  they  had  no 
rest.  Would  we  could  at  last  see  the  sun  rise,  they 
said  ;  how,  they  said,  could  we  tear  ourselves  away  from 
a  country  where,  united,  we  were  so  happy  ?"  "^ 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  22,  ref.  to 
Warden,  Reclierches,  p.  190. 


*  Gravier,  p.  xi ;   Bancroft,  vol. 
V.  p.  548. 


-Jmt 


1 11- 


!<■ 


320       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEPORC   COLUMBUS. 

If  those  words  mean  anything  at  all,  they  mean  that 
the  Quiches'  ancestors  have  come  by  the  way  of  Europe, 
along  a  route  that  lies  about  the  Arctic  Circle. 

Edw.  Payne,  however,  objects  to  the  opinion  that 
America  was  ever  settled  from  Europe  before  the  tenth 
century,'  and  I  deem  his  objection  to  be  worth  a  refu- 
tation. There  is  no  possible  doubt  that  Ural-Altaic 
tribes  migrated  from  "  Magnum  Suithiod,"  Scythia  or 
Great  Tartary  towards  the  Northwest,  and  occupied  all 
the  northern  parts  of  Europe.  A  fragment  of  an  Ice- 
landic manuscript  of  the  fourteenth  century,  founded 
upon  older  writings,  states  the  fact  in  the  following 
terms  :  "  All  truthful  histories  written  in  northern  lan- 
guages commence  with  the  time  that  the  Turks  and 
Asiatics  inhabited  the  North  and  brought  with  them 
the  tongue  called  Noroenu,  which  was  spoken  at  one 
time  in  Saxony,  Denmark,  and  Sweden,  in  Norway  and 
part  of  England."  ^  Vincent  *  describes  the  Laplanders 
as  being  yellowish  brown,  as  having  large  heads,  with 
broad,  low  foreheads,  slanting,  black  eyes,  flat,  short 
noses,  wide  mouths,  high  cheek-bones,  scanty  beards, 
and  long,  rigid,  black  hair.  They  belong  to  the  Finnic 
group  of  the  great  Turanian  family,  he  says,  and  adds 
the  particulars,  not  uncommon  with  our  Indians :  that 
they  practise  polygamy  and  sell  their  marriageable 
daughters ;  the  richest  of  these  commanding  one  hun- 
dred, and  the  poorest,  twenty,  reindeer.  The  Lap- 
landers were  known  already  in  the  sixth  century  of 
our  era  as  a  tribe  of  the  Ural-Finnic  family.* 

Procopius  does  not  mention  the  Markfinns  of  north- 
ernmost Norway,  but  he  heard  of  the  Scritifinns  estab- 
lished on  the  shores  of  the  Bothnian  Gulf.^     Besides 


'  p.  34. 

'  Langebek,  t.  ii.  p.  34. 


»  S.  126-134. 


*  Peschel,   Geschichte   der    Erd- 
kunde,  ed.  Sophus  Huge,  S.  88. 

*  De  Bello  Gothico,  lib.  ii.  cap. 

XV. 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN   OF   OUR    ABORIGINES.      321 


those,  other  nations  of  the  same  race  still  occupy  the 
northern  coast  as  far  as  the  river  Obi, — to  wit,  the 
Perms,  the  Samoyeds,  and  the  Tschererais.^ 

All  these  tribes  continue  to  live,  as  their  American 
brethren,  on  the  proceeds  of  their  hunting  and  fishing. 
Still  every  summer  they  board  their  canoes  and  pro- 
ceed farther  north  and  west,  to  the  islands  of  Nova 
Zembla,  Kalgouew,  and  Bear  ;  and  they  used  to  extend 
their  excursions  as  far  as  John  Mayen,  Iceland,  and 
Greenland.  The  waters,  the  air,  and  the  land  of  those 
regions  abound  in  game  of  various  kinds,  and  the 
climate  is  not  uncomfortable  during  three  or  four  sum- 
mer months,  even  to-day ;  while,  for  reasons  to  be  ex- 
posed hereafter,  we  may  believe  that  it  was  much 
milder  in  centuries  gone  by.  Nova  Zembla,  Green- 
land, and  the  intervening  islands  are  designated,  as 
early  as  the  first  century,  by  Pomponius  Mela,  as  the 
habitation  of  the  Huns  and  Finns,^  and  an  ancient 
anonymous  writer  tells  us  that  authors  before  him  con- 
sidered the  Skraelings,  whom  the  Northmen  met  in  the 
present  New  England  States,  as  lineal  descendants  of 
the  Laplanders  of  Europe.^ 

Should  we  be  allowed  to  draw  any  inference  from 
their  names  rather  than  from  the  shape  of  their  crania, 
we  would  feel  inclined  to  think  that  the  Esquimaux  and 
the  Russian  Laplanders  are  one  and  the  same  nation, 
for  the  former  call  themselves  Abenakiseskimantsik, 
which  signifies  eaters  of  raw  fish,  and  the  Russians 
call  their  boreal  friends  Sirojed'zi,  with  the  same  mean- 
ing.* Anderson  ^  came  to  an  equivalent  conclusion  when 


•  Maltebrun,  t.  i.  lib.  xv.  p.  324 ; 
Horn,  lib.  iii.  cap.  v.  p.  151. 

'  Horn,  lib.  iii.  cap.  v.  p.  151, 
seq. 

*  C.  C.  Rafn,  Antiquitates,  p. 
196,  translating  the  ancient  M8. 
"  Arnse-Magnreanum    No.     770o"  : 

I.— 21 


"Hann  (Thorbjorn)  fann  ok  ein- 
ninn  SkraeUngja,  thaer  thj6dir 
kalla  sumar  baekr  Lappa." 

*  Grftberg  da  Hemso,  Translation 
of  Rafn' 8  Discovery  of  America,  p. 


41. 


*  Nachrichten,  p.  284. 


322       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

he  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  Siberian  Tartars,  the 
Samoyeds,  went  over  to  the  American  continent  by  the 
way  of  Nova  Zembla  and  neighboring  islands.  Torfseus 
subscribes  to  the  same  theory  in  his  Ancient  Vinland. 

Procopius  of  Cesarea,  the  most  learned  of  Byzantine 
historians,  wrote  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century 
a  very  interesting  page  bearing  on  our  present  subject. 
He  had  received  particular  information  in  regard  to  the 
islands  and  territories  lying  beyond  the  Arctic  Circle, 
which  he  designates  as  Thule,  an  island,  he  adds,  ten 
times  as  large  as  Britain,  but,  for  the  greater  part,  an 
uninhabited  waste.  He  had  wondered  at  the  number 
and  the  customs  of  Its  people ;  but  what  had  struck  him 
the  most  was  that  the  sun  towards  the  end  of  the  sum- 
mer did  not  leave  the  horizon  for  the  space  of  forty 
days,  while  six  months  later,  at  the  close  of  the  winter 
season,  he  did  not  rise  nor  was  seen  for  an  equal  length 
of  time. 

From  both  these  remarks  we  now  understand  that 
Procopius  had  been  informed  not  only  about  the  island 
Tiiule  or  Iceland,  but  also  in  regard  to  the  American 
regions  to  the  Northwest  of  it.  He  doubted  the  state- 
ments, but,  not  having  the  desired  occasion  of  verifying 
them  by  himself,  he  made  inquiries  from  people  who 
came  to  Constantinople  from  those  very  regions.^ 

Being  thus  satisfied  of  the  truth,  Procopius  writes 
down  what  he  had  heard  from  the  seafarers  that  car- 
ried on  trade  between  sunny  Byzantium  and  the  frozen 
lands  of  the  North.  After  telling  how  the  semi-civil- 
ized Heruli,  defeated  by  the  Langobards,  had  event- 
ually migrated  to  this  distant  island  Thule,  he  gives 
a  description  of  its  inhabitants :  "  The  districts  best 
cultivated  and  built  upon  are  divided  among  thirteen 

*  Later  on,  we  will  see  that  this     singular  assertion  of  Procopius  haa 

nothing  very  objectionable. 


4 


URAL-ALTAIC   ORIGIN    OF   OUR    AHORIOINEH.       823 


very  numerous  nations  that  have,  each  one,  their  own 
king.  Yet  among  them  there  is  one  tribe  of  barba- 
rians who  are  called  Scritifinns.  Their  manner  of 
life  is  that  of  wild  beasts ;  they  wear  neither  clothes  nor 
foot-gear ;  they  drink  no  wine  nor  raise  food  from  the 
soil,  which  they  do  not  till ;  nor  do  their  women  perform 
any  such  labor,  but  they  take  their  wives  along  on  their 
hunting  expeditions.  Indeed,  the  woods,  which  are  no 
doubt  very  extensive  in  that  country,  and  the  high 
mountains  abound  with  game.  Their  only  subsist- 
ence, therefore,  are  the  wild  animals  they  catch  on  the 
chase.  They  cover  themselves  with  their  skins,  while 
linen  or  woollen  fabrics  are  not  in  use ;  nor  have  they 
either  the  knowledge  or  the  tools  for  sewing,  but  using 
the  sinews  of  their  game  they  bind  the  hides  together 
and  throw  them  around  their  bodies.  In  other  re- 
spects the  Thulites  do  not  differ  considerably  from  other 
mortals,  for  ney  worship  a  great  number  of  gods  and 
demons,  some  of  whom  they  consider  as  living  in  heaven, 
others  in  the  air,  and  governing  land  and  sea ;  others 
yet  they  have,  that  are  said  to  dwell  in  waters,  springs, 
and  streams,  and  especially  to  these  do  they  offer  all 
kinds  of  sacrifices.  But  their  most  precious  victim  is 
the  first  man  they  take  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  whom 
they  immolate  to  Mars,^  the  greatest  of  their  gods.  Yet 
it  is  customary  with  them  not  only  to  kill  the  victim, 
but  they  first  hang  him  alive  from  a  tree,  then  drag 
him  through  thistles  and  thorns,  and,  thus  torturing 
him  in  various  inhuman  ways,  they  finally  put  him  to 
death.  It  is  well  proved,"  says  the  historian,  "that 
such  are  the  people  among  whom  the  Heruli  went  forth 
to  live." » 

Procopius  may  have  made  some  slight  mistakes,  but 


*  Huitzilopochtli   of    the   Mexi- 
cans? 


»  See  Document  XVII. 


t.' 


i 


324        HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 

his  statements  agree  with  the  general  teaching  cf  his- 
tory. 

It  would  be  hypercriticism  to  call  in  question  the 
fact  that  the  Finns  or  some  one  of  their  neighboring 
Turanian  relations  have  been  among  the  earliest  tribes, 
and  perhaps  the  very  first  from  Europe,  to  discover  and 
settle  our  western  hemisphere.'  Dr.  Vincent  '^  further 
confirms  this  conclusion  when  he  says,  "  One  is  struck 
by  the  paleolithic  implements  and  specimens  of  the 
rude  attempts  at  art  by  primeval  European  Cave-men 
contained  in  the  Ethnographical  Museum  of  Copen- 
hagen ;  they  resemble  in  many  important  respects  those 
now  in  use  among  the  Esquimaux ;"  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  quite  recently  Professor  Dawkins  has 
expressed  his  belief,  from  their  mode  of  living  and 
especially  their  not  caring  to  bury  the  dead,  that  the 
Cave-men  were  indeed  a  sort  of  Esquimaux,  and  that 
these  latter  people  of  the  present  time  represent  the 
Cave-men  as  they  lived  in  Europe  in  ages  long  past. 
The  various  tribes  along  the  Polar  Circle  are  much 
like  them  even  until  this  day.  The  Copenhagen  Mu- 
seum also  exhibits  a  number  of  American  antiquities 
made  of  stone,  urns  and  arrow-heads,  that  remarkably 
resemble  those  of  the  stone  age  of  northern  Europe.^ 

It  has  further  been  observed  that  the  ancient  fishing 
and  hunting  implements  of  the  Greenland  Esquimaux 
bear  a  striking  resemblance  to  those  of  the  Alaskan  and 
of  the  Aleutian  tribes,  which,  in  turn,  are  quite  similar 
to  those  of  the  Siberian  Tartars.* 

This  last  similarity  is  easily  understood,  as  there  can 


*  Horn.  lib.  iii.  cap.  vii.  p.  162, 
ably  refutes  the  silly  opinion  of 
Hugo  Grotius,  lately  revived  by 
the  grave  Gravier  (IXme  Partie), 
that  our  present  Indians  are  the 


descendants  of  the  Catholic  North- 
men of  the  eleventh  century  1 
»  P.  26. 

*  Antiquaries  du  Nord,  1845-49, 
p.  20. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  26. 


UUAL-ALTAIC;    OIUUIN    OF   OUR   AHORIGINKS.      325 

be  no  doubt  that  America  has  received  a  great  number 
of  its  settlers  by  the  way  of  Behring  Strait  and  of  the 
Aleutian  archipelago. 

Mere  induction  led  the  first  historians  of  America  to 
believe  that  there  must  be  somewhere  a  place  where  the 
American  continent  was  actually  connected  with  Asia, 
or  severe  1  from  it  only  by  a  narrow  strip  of  water,  a 
si)()t  where  Asiatics  had  found  an  easy  passage  into 
the  New  World/  Philological  researches  ir  ide  by 
Relandus  caused  him  to  declare,  in  a  curious  di^  rta- 
tion  upon  American  languages,  that  the  northern  re- 
gions of  our  continent  were  peopled  by  northern  Asiatic 
tribes.'^  Maltebrun  ^  drew  a  similar  conclusion  from  his 
own  comparison  of  American  and  of  Asiatic  languages, 
— namely,  that  Asiatic  tribes  related  by  language  and 
blood  with  the  Finnic,  migrated  into  America,  by  follow- 
ing the  shores  of  vtie  Arctic  Ocean  and  crossing  Behring 
Strait.  The  Esquimaux,  says  Pilling,*  with  r>6rhaps 
two  or  three  exceptions,  cover  a  wider  range  of  terri- 
tory than  any  of  the  other  linguistic  stocks  of  North 
America.  From  Labrador  on  the  East,  their  habita- 
tions dot  the  coast-line  to  the  Aleutian  Islands  on  the 
West,  and  a  dialect  of  the  language  is  spoken  on  the 
coast  of  northeastern  Asia.  "  While,"  says  Winchell,' 
"we  cannotfail  to  be  impressed  by  the  ethnic  distinc- 
tions of  American  Orarians  or  Esquimaux  and  Ameri- 
can Indians  of  the  interior,  there  is  equally  apparent 
an  ethnic  resemblance  between  American  and  Asiatic 
Orarians.    The  Chuk-luk-mut  or  Namollos  residing  on 


'  Tortiuemada,  t.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  x. 
p.  29 ;  Solorzano,  Politica  Indiana, 
p.  21. 

*  Woldike,  A  dissertation  upon 
the  Origin  of  the  Greenland  tongue, 
in  Scripta  a  Societate  Hafniensi, 
parte  ii.  p.  140. 


'  T.  V.  p.  20(5. 

*  Bibliography  of  the  Eskimo 
Languiige,  Preface,  ap.  Amer. 
Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xviii.  p.  707. 

»  P.  322. 


326       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


!  ^'  f. 


\\    I 


M 


1* 


the  Asiatic  shores    df  Behring  Strait  are   very  near 
kindred  of  the  Esquimaux." 

Sophus  Ruge  ^  had  summarized  the  learned  conclu- 
sions of  many  previous  authors  when  he  wrote  that 
Behring  Strait  is  a  natural,  inviting  way  of  communi- 
cation between  both  continents,  and  that  the  tribes  in- 
habiting both  shores  belong  to  one  ab  the  same  nation. 
Bancroft^  gives  a  long  list  of  serious  writers  who  all 
make  identical  assertions.  The  theory  that  America,  or 
at  least  the  northwestern  part  of  it,  was  peopled  by  Tar- 
tars or  tribes  of  northeastern  Asia  is  supported  by  many 
authors,  he  says.  There  certainly  is  no  reason  why 
they  should  not  have  crossed  Behring  Strait,  the  pas- 
sage being  easy  enough  ;  all  the  more,  as  it  is  frequently 
frozen  over  in  winter,  thus  affording  not  only  to  rude 
hunting  men,  but  even  to  wandering  brutes,  a  solid 
road  from  one  continent  to  the  other,  while  in  clear 
weather  East  Cape  and  Cape  Prince  of  Wales  are, 
through  the  medium  of  the  Diomede  Islands,  in  sight 
of  each  other. 

The  width  of  the  strait  is  commonly  stated  at  thirty- 
six  to  thirty-nine  geographical  miles,  and  its  depth  at 
thirty  fathoms  only.  The  former  presence  of  the  hairy 
mammoth  on  both  sides  is  a  strong  indication  that  a 
land- connection  formerly  existed.  T^  summer  Esqui- 
mau boatmen  very  frequently  make  the  passage  from 
one  side  to  the  other  for  commercial  purposes.  In- 
deed, there  is  a  tribe  of  Esquimaux,  the  Okee-og-mut, 
occupying  the  islands  in  the  strait,  who  subsist  as 
commercial  traders,  and  regularly  conduct  the  traffic 
between  the  Asiatic  and  the  American  shore.^ 

De  Quatrefages  wrote  in  the  same  manner :  "  The 
proximity  of  the  two  continents  at  Behring  Strait,  the 


•  Bd.  i.  s.  4. 

»  Vol.  V.  pp.  ;«,  54. 


»  Winchell,  p.  398. 


URAL-ALTAIC    ORIGIN    OF   OUR   ABORIGINES.       327 


existence  in  this  channel  of  the  St.  Lawrence  Islands, 
the  largest  of  which  is  situated  exactly  half-way  between 
the  two  opposite  continents,  the  connection  formed  be- 
tween Kamtchatka  and  the  peninsula  of  Alaska  by  the 
Aleutian  Islands,  the  maritime  habits  of  all  these  peo- 
ples, the  presence  of  the  Tchukchees  on  the  two  oppo- 
site shores,  the  voyages  which  they  undertake  from  one 
continent  to  the  other  on  simple  matters  of  commerce, 
leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  facility  with  which  the  Asiatic 
races  could  pass  into  North  America  through  the  polar 
regions."  ^  "  At  all  events,"  says  Bancroft,'^  "  it  is  cer- 
tain that  from  time  immemorial  constant  intercourse 
has  been  kept  up  between  the  natives  on  either  side  of 
the  strait ;  indeed,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  they  are 
one  and  the  same  people." 


I 


t 


'  Human  Species,  p.  199. 


»  Vol.  V.  p.  28. 


Mil 


— ^iC  .j.aiji;»r,'uf^'iaio3ij,a«iK*aifc.; 


mm 


.1' 


'■• . 


I 


^ 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

EAST-ASIATIC,  POLYNESIAN,  AND   OTHER   IMMIGRATIONS. 

The  Aleutian  archipelago,  in  connection  with  Cape 
Lopatka  and  the  Koorile  Islands,  forms,  between  east- 
ern Asia  and  northwestern  America,  another  natural 
highway  of  communication,  which  to  many  seems  to 
be  easier  and  more  practicable  than  that  of  Behring 
Strait.' 

From  Attou,  the  westernmost  of  the  Aleutians,  to 
Kamtchatka,  it  is  said  to  be  about  four  hundred  and 
ten  geographical  miles.  The  Commander's  Islands, 
however,  break  this  interval :  Miedna  Island  is  but 
one  hundred  and  eighteen  miles  from  Kamtchatka,  and 
Behring's,  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  from 
Attou.  These  distances  over  a  boisterous  sea  are  re- 
garded by  Professor  Dall  as  impassable  for  the  rude 
navigators  of  primitive  times.  But,  even  though  we 
might  suppose,  in  spite  of  truth,  that  primitive  nations 
were  ignorant  sailors,  these  distances  were  no  obstacle  to 
immigration  by  the  way  of  the  Aleutian  Islands.  Pro- 
fessor Dall  himself  informs  us  that  the  PribylofF  Islands 
in  the  Behring  Sea  are  inhabited  by  Aleuts,  and  yet  the 
nearest  of  the  Aleutians  is  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  distant,  as  well  as  any  other  land.  From  this  it 
appears  that  voyages,  said  to  be  impossible,  were  made 
and  made  often  to  discover  and  settle  these  solitary 


i^ 


ift 


li 


'  Rotteck,   Bd.  vii.  S.  bti;   Ban-  his  Huiuan  Species,  p.  238,  "  Immi- 

croft,  vol.  V.  p.  28,  quoting  Latliam,  gration  from  Asia  appears  to  have 

Simpeon,  Branseur  de  Bourbourg,  taken  place  mostly  by  the  Aleutian 

Prescott,  and  Smith,  who  says,  in  Islands." 


east-asiatk;  and  oriiKii  immigrations. 


329 


isles.  There  is  no  need  of  recalling  to  mind  the  much 
longer  voyages  effected  by  the  Polynesian  natives.^ 

The  Aleutian  bridge  was,  therefore,  practicable,  and 
it  vas  the  direct  route  to  our  shores  for  several  of 
the  numerous  Asiatic  nations,  as  for  the  Tunguses, 
the  Yakootsks,  the  Kamtchatkans,  the  Mongols,  and 
the  Mantchoos,  all  of  whom,  more  or  less  related  to  the 
Samoyeds  and  the  Finns,  crossed  at  various  times 
the  northern  Pacific  Ocean,  and,  mingling  again  in  the 
New  World  with  kindred  tribes,  finally  spread  over  the 
greater  portion  of  our  hemisphere  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico  and  even  to  the  southern  parts  of  South  Amer- 
ica. Everywhere,  as  we  have  seen  before,  they  left  the 
impress  of  their  native  characteristics  as  to  physique, 
language,  customs,  and  barbarism  generally,'^  while  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  climate  and  food,  as  well  as 
their  mixture  with  less  numerous  immigrants  of  Ma- 
laisian  origin,  may,  during  long  centuries,  have  devel- 
oped among  them  the  distinctive  color  of  most  American 
aborigines. 

The  Aleutian-Koorile  bridge  across  the  northern 
Pacific,  extending,  as  it  does,  farther  to  the  Southwest, 
along  the  islands  of  Japan,  also  afforded  facilities  for 
American  immigration  to  the  Japanese,  the  Coreans, 
the  Chinese,  and  other  nations  of  eastern  Asia ;  and, 
from  numerous  authorities  and  indications,  it  would 
appear  that  these  conveniences  have  not  been  neglected 
by  the  eastern  Asiatics.  The  fact  is  that  the  diversity 
of  languages,  including  the  monosyllabic,  along  the 
western  coast  of  North  and  of  Central  America  suffi- 
ciently proves  the  successive  arrival  of  settlers  from 
divers  countries,  which  are  easily  understood  to  lie  either 
within  or  on  the  western  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 


»  Cf.  Winchell,  p.  399. 


'  Cf.    Maltebnin,    t.   v.   p. 
Rotteck,  Bd.  vii.  S.  5(5,  57. 


205; 


330       HISTORY   OP   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


f" 


i      iff 


/ 


Along  the  sea-shore,  says  Bancroft/  the  speech  of 
the  people  is  broken  into  innumerable  fragments.  South 
of  Acapulco  the  Aztec  tongue  holds  the  seaboard  for 
some  distance ;  but  farther  south,  as  well  as  on  the  coast 
of  the  Gulf  of  California,  there  is  found  a  great  diver- 
sity in  languages  and  dialects.  In  California  the  con- 
fusion becomes  interminable,  as  if  Babel-builders  from 
every  quarter  of  the  earth  had  here  met  to  the  eternal 
confounding  of  all.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that 
Malays,  Chinese,  or  Japanese,  or  all  of  them,  did  at 
some  time  appear  on  our  Pacific  shores.  Horn  ^  estab- 
lishes with  solid  arguments  that  actually  the  southern 
Mongols,  the  Coreans,  the  Japanese,  and  the  Chinese 
founded  some  colonies  on  American  soil.  Bastian,^ 
Maltebrun,*  and  a  number  of  other  writers  referred  to 
by  Bancroft^  are  of  the  same  opinion. 

"  I  have,  when  young,"  says  Dr.  de  Mier,  "  read  a 
book  written  in  Canton,  China,  in  which  an  English- 
man, whose  name  I  forget,  demonstrated  that  during 
the  first  six  centuries  of  the  Church  there  existed  a  con- 
stant intercourse  between  America  and  China."  ^  The 
scholiast  of  Carli  also  gives  evidences  of  commerce 
between  Mexico  and  China  during  the  fifth  century. 

The  habit  of  burning  the  dead,  familiar  to  both 
Mongols  and  Aztecs,  is  in  itself  but  slender  proof  of 
a  common  origin.  The  body  must  be  disposed  of  in 
some  way,  and  this  one  is  perhaps  as  natural  as  any 
other.  But  when  to  this  is  added  the  circumstance  of 
collecting  the  ashes  in  a  vase,  and  of  depositing  the 
single  article  of  a  precious  stone  along  with  them,  the 
coincidence  is  remarkable.    A  proof  of  a  higher  kind 


»  Vol.  iii.  p.  559. 

*  Lib.  iv.  cap.  v.  p.  238. 
»  Bd.  ii.  S.  436. 

*  T.  V.  p.  205. 


*  Vol.  V.  p.  32. 

*  Sahagiin,  Historia  General,  Me- 
moir of  Dr.  de  Mier,  post  init. 


EAST-ASIATIC   AND   OTHER   IMMIGRATIONS. 


331 


is  found  in  the  analogies  of  science.  We  shall  soon 
notice  the  peculiar  chronological  system  of  the  Aztecs. 
They  distributed  the  years  into  cycles,  and  reckoned 
by  means  of  periodical  series,  instead  of  numbers.  A 
similar  process  was  used  by  the  various  Asiatic  nations 
of  the  Mongol  family,  from  India  to  Japan.  A  corre- 
spondence quite  as  extraordinary  is  found  between  the 
hieroglyphics  used  by  the  Aztecs  as  signs  of  days,  and 
the  zodiacal  signs  which  the  eastern  Asiatics  employed 
as  terms  of  their  series.  The  symbols  of  the  Mongolian 
calendar  are  borrowed  from  animals.  Four  of  the 
twelve  are  the  same  as  the  Aztec ;  three  others  are  as 
nearly  the  same  as  the  different  species  of  animals  of 
the  two  hemispheres  would  allow,  and  the  remaining 
five  refer  to  no  creature  then  found  in  Anahuac.  The 
resemblance  went  as  far  as  it  could.^ 

It  is  not  impossible,  therefore,  that  the  Aztecs  and 
other  Nahua  nations  have  had  their  primeval  origin  in 
China  or  Japan ;  but  most  likely  they  migrated  to  our 
continent  in  a  northeastern  direction  and  landed  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Alaskan  peninsula.  Traditions  of 
a  western  or  northwestern  origin  were  found  among 
the  more  barbarous  tribes,  and  were  preserved  by  the 
Mexicans  both  orally  and  upon  hieroglyphic  maps. 
These  are  admitted  to  agree  in  representing  the  popu- 
lous North  as  the  prolific  hive  of  the  American  races. 
From  this  quarter,  Prescott  asserts,  the  Toltecs,  the 
Chichimecs,  and  the  kindred  races  of  the  Nahuatlacs 
came  successively  up  the  great  plateau  of  the  Andes, 
spreading  over  its  hills  and  valleys  down  to  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  In  the  northwestern  districts  of  New  Spain, 
at  the  distance  of  a  thousand  miles  from  the  capital, 
dialects  have  been  discovered  showing  intimate  afiinity 


•  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  pp.  375,  376. 


■* '  t '  * 


I 


I'M  i 


332        HI8TORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

with  the  Mexican ;  and  in  tlie  higher  latitudes,  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Nootka,  tribes  still  exist  whose  lan- 
guages both  in  te^'mination  and  general  sound  of  the 
words,  bear  considerable  resemblance  to  the  Aztec/ 

On  the  other  hand,  there  exists  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance of  physical  features  between  several  tribes  of 
southern  Alaska  and  the  Japanese.  Not  long  since 
Ann  Arbor  counted  among  its  students  a  native  Aleut 
brought  from  Unalaska,  while  several  Japanese  fre- 
quented the  University  ;  and  it  is  instructive  to  remark 
that  none  but  the  closest  observers  could  distinguish  the 
Aleut  from  the  Japanese.^ 

Some  authors  have  even  exaggerated  the  importance 
of  Chinese  immigrations,  and  have  considered  the 
Mongolic  race  as  the  princijial  parent-stock  of  the 
American  aborigines.  They  mainly  insist  upon  the 
pretended  physical  similarity  between  both  races,  yet 
this  resemblance  is  denied  by  many  writers.  Thus, 
Kneeland  ^  says  that  if  Americans  are  placed  side  by 
side  with  Chinese,  hardly  any  resemblance  will  be 
found  in  physical  character,  except  in  the  general 
contour  of  their  faces  and  in  their  straight  black  hair, 
while  their  mental  characteristics  are  entirely  opposite. 
Neither  do  their  religion,  laws,  customs,  etc.,  agree  in 
the  least.  Our  own  experience  has  taught  us  that  the 
Indian  of  the  United  States  hates  and  despises  the  Chi- 
nese more  than  he  does  the  European.  Nor  could  we 
ever  find  more  physical  similarity  between  the  two  races 
than  there  exists  between  dark  red  and  pale  yellow. 

Winchell  *  finds  great  resemblance  between  the  fea- 
tures of  the  hunting  tribes  of  North  American  Indians 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  381-384,  ref.  to  Vater, 
Mithridates,  Theil  iii.  Abtheilung 
iii.  S.  143,  212. 


»  Wincliell,  p.  68,  n.  1.        "        " 
'  Wonders,  p.  53,  quoted  by  Ban- 
croft, vol.  V.  p.  38,  n.  . 
♦  P.  ;W3. 


EAST-ASIATIC    AND    OTHER    IMMIGRATIONS. 


333 


and  those  of  the  Polynesiann.  Both  races  are  charac- 
terize' by  a  brownish-olive  color;  both  are  tall,  and  in 
height  snrpass  the  Mongoloid  Asiatics ;  the  eyes  are 
stn.ight,  while  oblicjuity  is  of  frequent  occurrence  among 
tribes  more  distinctly  jV  goloid  ;  the  nose,  sometimes 
Asiatic,  is  more  freque.  large,  prominent,  bridged, 
and  even  aquiline.  This  is  a  characteristic  uf  the 
Papuan  branch  of  the  Negrito  race,  while  the  typical 
Mongoloid  nose  is  short  and  depressed  ;  the  face  is  oval 
and  not  fiat,  and  it  is  longer  than  in  Asiatics ;  the 
cranium  is  smaller  and  more  dolichocephalous,  and  the 
face  less  prognathous. 

The  resemblance  to  the  Mongols  seems,  l^owever,  to 
be  greater  farther  north.  Wrangel  ^  says,  "  1-.  is  enough 
to  look  at  an  Aleut  to  recognize  the  Mongol."  Nor 
should  we  wond-ir  at  this  when  we  notice  that  most 
probably  some  east- Asiatic  immigrants  have  come  by 
the  Koorilo-Aleutian  route  to  the  American  shores. 
Yet  it  is  likely  that  the  greater  number  have  more  di- 
rectly crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  some  of  them  perhaps 
against  their  will  and  wishes,  driven  by  adverse  winds 
and  tempests,  or  unable  to  resist  the  action  of  the  Japan 
current  or  Kouro-Siwa  ocean  stream,  which  is  very  apt 
to  carry  Japanese  vessels  to  the  Californian  shores. 
Gomara^  assures  us  that  a  few  y  irt-  'fter  the  Spanish 
conquest  of  Mexico  fragments  O'  -i  s 
were  found  washed  upon  its  coas  ;  i 
since  a  great  many  instances  of  J 
upon  the  American  seaboard.  L.o^^ 
of  forty-one  particular  cases,  beginning  in  the  year 
1782,  twenty-eight  of  which  date  since  1850. 


from  Cathay 
I  re  have  been 
^unks  drifting 
gives  a  series 


li  :  I 


'  Nouvelles  Annales  des  Voyages, 
t.  cxxxvii.  p.  213. 


'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin, 
March  2,  1875  ;  cf.  Bastian,  Bd.  ii. 


'  Historia  General,  quoted  by  von     S.  437. 
Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  67. 


UMW-««*ll-r.lWR.^41. 


m  I 


334       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

But  what  need  is  there  of  following  the  modern 
fashion  of  explaining  America's  ancient  settlements  by 
means  of  storms  and  shipwrecks?  Nadaillac^  justly 
remarks  that  a  knowledge  of  navigation  no  better  than 
that  possessed  at  present  by  the  lowest  people  of  Mela- 
nesia would  have  enabled  a  migration  along  the  line 
of  the  thirtieth  parallel,  south,  to  reach  the  coast  of 
America  in  time  to  give  it  a  considerable  population. 
We  know  that  the  rudimentary  knowledge  of  modern 
Malays  is  not  the  standard  of  nautical  science,  as  we 
find  it  recorded  at  the  time  of  Kings  Solomon  and 
Hiram,  and  before  it.  We  know  that  this  science  was 
still  preserved  by  the  eastern  and  the  southern  Asiatics 
until  the  beginning  of  modern  times,  when  for  centuries 
the  Chinese  and  the  Polynesians  shipped  to  Arabia  and 
Persia,  over  a  watery  extent  almost  as  large  as  that 
between  Asia  and  America,  the  rich  products,  pearls, 
and  spices,  which  the  mercantile  republics  of  Genoa, 
Venice,  and  Florence  put  on  the  markets  of  all  Europe. 
We  know  that  an  admiral  of  Japan  has,  in  our  days, 
directed  a  navy  that  may  venture  to  meet  in  contest 
any  fliet  of  the  world.  When  we  further  consider 
that  the  numerous  groups  of  islands,  far  apart  on  the 
broad  Pacific  Ocean, — the  Sandwich,  the  Carolinas, 
the  Samoa,  the  Cook,  the  Marquises,  the  Low  Islands, 
and  so  many  more  small  islets  lost  in  the  waves  of  the 
wide  expanse, — were  all  found  and  settled  by  human 
beings  that  no  one  will  venture  to  call  autochthones, 
then  it  seems  to  be  not  only  reasonable  but  unavoidable 
to  admit  that  in  prehistoric  times  people  were  sailing 
on  the  great  ocean  just  as  securely  and  as  intelligently 
as  they  are  now. 

The  most  remarkable  example,  probably,  of  a  direct 


P.  523. 


EAST-ASIATIC    AND   OTHER    IMMIGRATIONS. 


335 


intercourse  of  the  Polynesian  aborigines  between  re- 
mote points  is  furnished  to  us  by  Captain  Cook,  who 
found  the  inhabitants  of  New  Zealand  not  only  with 
the  same  religion,  but  speaking  the  same  language  as 
the  people  of  Otaheite,  distant  more  than  two  thousand 
miles.^ 

Science  should  have  progressed  sufficiently  to-day 
not  to  let  us  consider  any  longer  our  oldest  ancestors, 
from  whom,  after  all,  we  have  learned  what  we  know 
and  many  of  whose  arts  are  lost  to  us,  as  imbecile 
infants,  who  could  not  reach  the  next  shore  but  by 
means  of  an  intelligent  storm.  We  admit  that  science 
may  become  obfuscated  at  certain  epochs,  together  with, 
and  as  a  consequence  of,  the  loss  of  divine  faith  and 
revelation ;  but  history  bears  us  out  in  the  conviction 
that  science  and  religion  went  hand  in  hand  during 
the  golden  age  of  human  existence ;  and  if  afterwards 
we  have  seen  nations  rise  to  the  advancement  of  their 
pristine  fathers,  they  are  exclusively  such  as  have  been 
illumined  again  by  the  teachings  of  the  God-man,  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  boast  of  progress,  and  yet  we 
are  simply  going  back  to  the  spot  from  v/hich  our  fore- 
fathers wandered  away,  when  we  discover  a  continent 
or  an  island  that  was  found  and  settled  by  the  ancestors 
of  its  aborigines. 

We  have  noticed  already  ^  that  one  of  the  very  oldest 
and  perhaps  the  most  civilized  of  all  the  American  na- 
tions, the  Mayas  of  Xibalba,  had  from  man's  primordial 
home  come  over  into  America,  most  likely  by  the  way 
of  the  Polynesian  archipelagos ;  and  there  is  every 
reason  to  believe  that  the  second,  less  illustrious  period 
of  American  immigration  witnessed  the  arrival  of  many 


*  Cook's  Voyages,  Dublin,  1784, 
vol.   1.  bk,  i.  ch.  8,  ap.  Prescott, 


Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  359, 
n.  9. 
'^  Supra,  pp.  91,  92. 


MJip^.*"'  1  - '  I  jw;>  '11  iif"' "      '  '• 


F  I 


336       HIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I 


M:) 


I 


I! '/" ;. 

r   I 


flllll 


,^  : 


H't 


)l 


II* 


M 


a  vessel  ssiiling  over  the  same  route.  Rotteck  '  points  to 
the  Malay  race  for  an  explanation  of  the  most  ntriking 
varieties  found  on  our  western  coast,  among  the  other- 
wise uniform  type  of  American  aborigines.  Horn,  Gro- 
tius,  and  other  high  authorities  admit  that  our  conti- 
nent has  received  part  of  its  population  from  southern 
lands, — Australia  and  Australasia;'^  and  Nadaillac* 
recognizes  Melanesian  features  on  some  of  our  abo- 
riginal tribes.  "  In  treating  of  the  traditions  of  the 
civilized  tribes  of  America,"  says  Hutson,  "  and  of  the 
monumental  remains  that  still  attest  their  stage  of  cul- 
ture, I  shall  touch  upon  many  points  that  would  seem 
to  indicate  the  derivation  of  their  civilization  from  the 
Old  World.  One  clear  proof  of  the  origin  of  at  least 
some  part  of  this  civilization  from  abroad  is  the  fact  that 
the  banana  was  grown  largely  in  America  before  the 
Spaniards  came.  When  Pizarro  landed  on  the  coast  of 
Peru,  he  was  met  by  the  natives  with  a  present  of 
bananas  served  in  a  lordly  dish.  In  the  tombs  of  the 
Incas,  moreover,  beds  composed  of  banana-leaves  have 
been  found.  Now,  the  bananas  of  America  have  never 
been  found  in  the  wild  state.  They  are  all  seedless. 
The  wild  banana  is  a  native  of  the  Malay  region,  and 
produces  seed.  This  seed-producing  variety  grows  in 
Cochin-China,  the  Philippines,  Ceylon,  and  Khasia. 
The  seedless  variety  could  have  been  transported  to 
the  New  World  only  in  the  form  of  a  root  or  sucker."  * 
Maltebrun  ^  ventures  to  say  that  the  Mexican  teocallis 
are  modern  monuments  to  testify  to  the  Indians' 
Asiatic  origin :  "  Truncated  pyramids,  surrounded  by 
other  smaller  ones,  they  are  imitations  of  the  py- 
ramidal temples,  called  Scio-Madon  and    Scio-Dagon 

*  Bd.  vii.  S.  57.  *  Hutson,  The  Story  of  Language^ 

'  Hornius,  lib.  iii.  cap.  xx.  p.  220.     pp.  146,  147. 
»  Prehistoric  America,  p.  522.  *  T.  v.  p.  211. 


EAST-ASTATIC   AND   OTHER    IMMTORATION8. 


337 


among  tlie  Brahinans,  and  Pkahton  in  the  kingdom  of 
Siam."  Tlio  Mexicans  themselves,  Assal  writes,*  are, 
in  their  bodily  structure,  other  monuments  witness- 
ing their  descent  from  Australasian  ancestry ;  their 
countenance  and  size  are  like  those  of  south-Asiatic 
nations,  he  says ;  as  tire  likewise  their  brown  skin, 
their  scanty  beani,  long  black  hair,  small  hands  and 
feet,  and  their  slender  frames ;  these  latter  features 
distinguishing  them  from  the  Tartar  Indians  of  North 
America. 

The  Chimus  are  an  instance  of  numerous  migrations 
by  way  of  the  Polynesian  islands.  Tradition  relates 
that  these  people  came  from  the  open  sea  on  board  their 
frail  canoes,  and  took  possession  of  the  coast  south  of 
Peru  for  a  distance  of  eight  hundred  miles,  studding 
it  with  numerous  constructions.  The  ruins  of  Chimus, 
their  metropolis,  cover  an  area  ^)f  nine  by  eighteen 
miles.  They  were  the  only  aboriginal  American  In- 
dians acquainted  with  the  industry  of  bronze,  and 
raised  the  art  of  pottery  and  metal  vessels  to  a  high 
degree  of  perfection.  Often  at  war  with  the  Peruvian 
Incas,  they  preserved  their  national  independence  and 
continued  in  their  hostilities  even  until  the  arrival  of 
the  Spanish  conquistadores.  The  crania  of  their  de- 
scendants are  still  identical  with  those  of  the  Poly- 
nesians.'^ 

It  may  not  be  out  of  place  here  to  relate  the  state- 
ment of  Acosta,^  that  the  natives  of  Yea  and  of  Arica, 
on  the  south  Peruvian  coast,  reported  "  that  in  old 
time  they  were  wont  to  saile  farre  to  the  Islands  of 
the  West ;  so  as  there  wants  no  witnesses  to  prove  that 
they  sailed  in  the  South  Sea"  or  Pacific  Ocean  "  before 


»S.  86. 

■''  Jousset,  in  Congr^  Scient.,  viii. 
sec.  p.  110,  n.  1. 
I.— 22 


'  Bk.  i.  ch.  xix.  p.  56. 


f 


fl    i* 


338       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

the  Spaniards  came  thither."  They  had  not  forgotten 
the  route  by  which  they  had  come.^ 

Winehell  *  gives  an  enterprising  account  of  a  Poly- 
nesian immigration.  A  type  of  Mongoloids,"  he  says, 
"  strayed  to  the  shores  of  South  America  by  the  Poly- 
nesian communication.  Few  at  first,  they  were  unable 
to  force  a  passage  northward  along  the  western  slopes 
of  the  Andes  already  occupied.  They  filed  through 
the  passes  of  the  mountains  into  the  plains  of  the  Gran 
Chaco  and  the  pampas  of  the  La  Plata.  The  low- 
lands and  borders  of  broad  rivers  suited  the  hereditary 
instincts  of  the  posterity  of  islanders.  In  due  time  all 
South  America  ef^stward  of  the  Andes  fell  into  their 
possession.  When  they  stood  on  the  shores  of  the 
Caribbean  Sea  they  dared  embark  upon  its  waves. 
Island  invited  them  from  island.  They  reached  the 
greater  Antilles.  They  rested  on  the  Tortugas.  They 
invaded  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  and  another  conti- 
nent was  open  before  them.  Spreading  northward  and 
westward,  they  pressed  the  older  occupants  from  their 
presence.  The  white  man  arrived  and  found  these 
movements  of  population  in  progress"  I 

One  particular  immigration  from  southern  Asia, 
whether  legendary  or  real, — namely,  of  five  Buddhist 
priests, — is  said  to  have  taken  place  in  the  fifth  century 
of  our  era.     Great  scholars  have  spent  late  hours  on 


'  "Zabaja  was  a  great  maritime 
power,  and  probably  much  older 
than  the  Christian  era.  This  was 
an  empire  of  the  people  whom  we 
know  as  the  Malays,  who  no  longer 
represent  the  civilization  that  made 
their  nation  great  in  ancient 
times.  .  .  .  Rev.  Dr.  Lang  pub- 
lished at  London  in  the  year  181^4 
a  volume  entitled  '  The  Origin  and 
Migrations  of  the  Polynesian  Na- 


tion, Demonstrating  their  Ancient 
Discovery  and  Progressive  Settle- 
ment of  the  Continent  of  Amer- 
ica.' Von  Humboldt  and  others 
have  stated  their  belief  that  Amer- 
ica was  visited  in  preliistoric  times 
by  people  from  the  Asiatic  world, 
who  went  there  across  the  Pacific 
Ocean."  (Baldwin,  pp.  264,  265.) 
»  P.  405. 


EAST- ASIATIC    AND   OTIIKR    IMMKHtATIONH.  339 


this  intricate  historical  question.    De  Guignes,  a  French 
savant,  first  introduced  it  to  the  loarned  worhi  in  the 
year   1761 ; '   an    Elnglishman   wrote  a   book   entitled 
"  Fu-sang,  or  the  Discovery  of  America  by  Chinese 
Buddhist  Priests  in  the  Fifth  Century,"  "^  and  an  en- 
terprising American  journalist  lately  delivered  a  fine 
lecture  on  that  subject.^     Short  *  makes  a  concise  and 
truthful  statement  when  he  writes  :  The  original  docu- 
ment on  which  the  Chinese  historians  base  their  rela- 
tion was  the  report  of  a  Buddhist  missionary  named 
Hoei-Shin  or  Hwui-Shan,  who  in  the  year  499  after 
Christ,  claims  to  have  returned  from  a  long  journey 
of  discovery  to  the  remote  and  unknown  East.     This 
report,  whatever  may  be  its  intrinsic  value,  was  ac- 
cepted as  true  by  the  Chinese,  and  found  its  way  into 
the  History  of  Li-yan-tcheou,  written  at  the  beginning 
of  the  seventh  century  after  Christ.  .    .   .   Hoei-Shin 
states  that  in  earlier  times  the  people  of  Fu-Sang  lived 
not  according  to  the  laws  of  Buddha,  but  it  happened 
that  in  the  year  458  of  our  era  five  beggar  monks 
from  the  kingdom  of  Kipin  went  to  this  land,  extended 
over  it  the  religion  of  Buddha,  and  with  it  his  early 
writings  and  images ;    they  instructed  the  people  in 
the  principles  of  monastic  life,  and  thus  changed  their 
manners.     Fu-Sang  was  situated  twenty  thousand  "  li*"* 
to  the  east  of  the  country  of  Tahan,  and  an  equal 
distance  to  the  east  of  China.     One  species  of  its  trees, 
also  called  fu-sang,  procured  timber,  food,  clothing, 
paper,  etc.,  to  its  inhabitants.      These  people  possessed 
neither  arms  nor  troops,  and  never  waged  war.^    Hoei- 


'  Academic   des    Inscriptions,   t.      Avalanche,  Memphis,  November  0, 
xxviii.  p.  5.  1892. 

'London,   1875,  Charles  G.   Le-         «  P.  148. 
land.  ''A  Chinese  "li"   is  about  one- 

'  G.  C.   Matthews,  The  Appeal-     third  of  a  mile. 

•  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  34. 


miiiiniTiiiiiramffqfiiM^^gBfflifeaa^^ 


>  > 


I  I 


-^  , 

i 

\ 

1 

( 

i 

340       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   C0LUMBU8. 

Shin  reports  several  more  strange  particulars,  from 
which  the  learned  draw  the  m(  st  opposite  conclu- 
sions. Klaproth,  in  his  critique  on  de  (Tuignes's 
theory,  that  America  w{i«  long  since  known  to  the 
Chinese,  uses  the  distance  given  by  the  monk  to  show 
that  Fu-Sang  was  Japan,  and  Tahan  the  island  8a- 
ghalien.  De  Guignes's  paper,  he  says,  proves  noth- 
ing. By  a  similar  course  of  reasoning  it  might  be 
shown  that  the  Chinese  reached  France,  Italy,  or 
Poland.^ 

The  knight  Paravey  proved,  to  his  own  satisfaction, 
in  A.D.  1844,  that  Buddhist  monks  set  out  from  Cabool 
to  introduce  their  religion  into  America,  and  he  afforded 
new  arguments  in  1847.''  Dr.  Gaudran  has  written 
the  history  of  the  Buddhist  immigrants,''  and  several 
authors,  like  Tschudi,  Viollet-le-Duc,  and  Count  Stol- 
berg,  think  they  find  the  effects  of  their  missionary 
labors  in  the  analogies  between  the  religion  of  Mexico 
and  that  of  southern  Asia.*  C^onau,''  on  the  contrary, 
after  discussing  the  subject,  c  nes  to  the  sweeping 
conclusion  that  this  whole  story  but  hollow  imagi- 
nation of  diseased  brains,  and  that  there  never  was  any 
relation  between  Fu-Sang  and  America.  Huge*'  is  less 
decisive.  The  report,  he  says,  is  fabulous  to  a  great 
extent,  but  it  contains  particulai-s  that  we  cannot  reject 
without  proof,  and  the  Fu-Sang  question  is  not  settled 
yet.  Von  Humboldt  grants  that  the  monuments,  divi- 
sions of  time,  and  several  myths  of  the  former  inhab- 
itants of  America  offer  a  striking  analogy  with  the 
customs  of  eastern  Asia  ;  but  yet,  referring  to  Klap- 
roth, he  asserts  that  de  Guignes  mistakes  in  announcing 


'  Nouv.  Journ.  Asiatiquo,  18.32, 
p.  .S;^5,  quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  v. 
p.  ;«). 

'Six  M^moires. 


'  Congrt^s  Scient.,  viii.  hcc.  p.  112, 
n.  3. 

♦  Short,  p.  152. 
»S.  107. 

•  Enttleckungsgeschichte,  S.  4. 


EAST-ASIATIC    AND    OTHER   IMMI(4 RATIONS. 


341 


that  the  Chinese  have  known  America  since  the  fifth 
century  of  our  era.' 

Sliouhl,  however,  the  report  of  Hoei-Shin  prove  to 
be  fictitious,  or  to  not  rehite  to  our  continent,  it  woukl, 
none  the  less,  remain  certain  that  Asia,  both  north  and 
south,  as  well  as  Polynesia  and  northern  Europe,  pro- 
cured to  America  a  great,  if  not  the  greater,  number  of 
its  aboriginal  tribes. 

Whether  Africa,  in  olden  times,  planted  any  colony 
in  the  western  hemisphere  is  very  doubtful,  although 
it  could  not  be  denied  that  a  few  Negroes,  at  least, 
crossed  the  ocean  and  propagated  on  our  shores.  Rot- 
teck  ^  admits  that  Africans  may  have  concurred  towards 
the  formation  of  some  peculiar  varieties  of  American 
tribet^,  and  JNIaltebrun  finds  traces  of  African  languages 
in  America."'  Yet  a  better  proof  of  ancient  Negro 
arrivals  is  the  fact  of  Negro  colonies  found  by  the 
Spanish  and  Portuguese  discoverers  on  the  eastern 
coasts  of  l:^outh  and  of  Central  America.*  Mendoza 
encountered  a  tribe  of  Negritos,*"'  and  Balboa,  when  on 
his  famous  expedition  of  the  discovery  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  met  in  the  old  province  Quareca,  at  only  two 
days'  travel  from  the  (rulf  of  Darien,  with  a  settlement 
of  Negroes,  who  were,  says  P.  Martyr,  of  the  fiercest 
and  most  ferocious  nature.  Other  similar  small  com-  i 
munities  were  found  in  Panuco,  Yucatan,  in  Nicaragua, 
and  other  provinces." 

The  only  possible  question  yet  remains, — namely. 
What  route  did  the  colored  people  follow  on  their  way 
to  America  ?  Maltebrun  ^  is  of  the  opinion  that  they 
came  over  the  longest  stretch  of  water  on  earth,  over 


'  Anderson,  America  not  DIhcov- 
«red,  p.  122.     See  siipnv,  p.  330. 
»  Bd.  vii.  S.  57. 
»  T.  V.  p.  205. 


*  CongrOs  Scient.,    viii.   hoc.    pp. 
107, 132. 

'  Cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  i.  p.  571,  seq. 

•  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  259. 
'  T.  V.  p.  205. 


ymJMlilLlJiM*MiM 


342       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


f  ri 


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rr 


the  Indian  and  the  Pacific  Ocean ;  but  the  learned 
generally  set  forth  the  greater  probability  of  their 
having  crossed  the  Atlantic,  where  the  equatorial  cur- 
rent and  the  fair  trade-winds  are  exceptionally  favor- 
able to  westward  voyages.  The  discovery  of  Negro 
settlements  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Brazil  hardly  per- 
mits any  further  doubt  to  remain  on  this  question. 

Twice  during  the  last  century,  in  the  years  1731 
and  1764,  have  small  ships,  passing  from  one  point  of 
the  Canary  Islands  to  another,  been  driven  by  storms 
into  the  region  of  the  trade-winds  and  of  the  equato- 
rial current,  and  have  drifted  as  far  as  America.  What 
has  happened  in  our  time  must  often  have  happened 
before.^  We  should  not  wonder,  therefore,  at  the  early 
presence  of  African  Negroes  on  our  continent. 

If  from  the  existence  of  black  people  in  America  at 
the  time  of  its  latest  discovery  we  are  allowed  to  con- 
clude the  fact  of  ancient  Melanesian  and  African  im- 
migrations, the  presence  of  various  white  aboriginal 
tribes,  which  we  have  noticed  before,^  can  leave  no 
doubt  that  the  fair  nations  of  the  Eastern  Continent 
have  contributed  in  olden  times  towards  the  population 
of  the  New  World. 

We  might  here  remember  what  has  been  said  of  the 
uncertain  yet  probable  settlements  of  the  Phoenicians  or 
Carthaginians  in  the  western  hemisphere,^  the  Jewish 
theory  might  rise  again  before  our  minds,*  and  the 
Irish  reader  does  not  forget  the  plausible  suppositions 
which  have  been  set  forth  in  regard  to  the  Celts  trav- 
elling all  over  the  earth  in  pre-Christian  times  as  well- 
as  to-day.^  We  have  no  objections  to  make  to  conclu- 
sions derived  from  such  premises,  and,  frankly,  we  are 


»  De  Quatrefages,  p.  202. 

*  Supra,  p.  306. 

*  Supra,  pp.  192,  seq. 


*  Supra,  pp.  196,  seq. 
'  Supra,  pp.  200,  geq. 


EAST-ASIATIC   AND   OTHER    IMMIGRATIONS. 


343 


in  favor  of  the  opinion  holding  that  our  continent  was 
visited  of  old  and  settled,  time  and  again,  by  almost 
every  nation  of  the  Old  World,  as  it  is  nowadays. 

To  say,  however,  that  fair  Christian  peoples  of  Eu- 
rope have  established  colonies  in  various  parts  of 
America,  we  can  point  not  only  to  the  color  and 
features  of  ancient  tribes,  but  especially  to  doctrines, 
customs,  and  even  to  venerable  ruins,  as  to  reliable  wit- 
nesses testifying  with  historical  certainty  to  the  discov- 
ery and  settlement  of  America  by  European  Christian 
nations  centuries  before  the  birth  of  Columbus.^ 

It  shall  be  the  object  of  the  second  volume  of  this 
work  to  inquire  into  these  latter  European  immigra- 
tions and  to  give  their  history. 


Infra. 


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CHAPTER    XIV. 

SEMI-CIVILIZATION    OP    WESTERN    AMERICA. 

We  have  in  a  former  chapter  ^  given  a  succinct  de- 
scription of  the  dark,  abominable  side  of  American 
society  at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest.  It  is  but 
justice  to  state  that  our  natives,  especially  those  of 
Central  America  and  of  the  western  part  of  South 
America,  present  also,  to  even  a  casual  observer,  a 
brighter  and  more  gratifying  aspect,  which  should,  in 
turn,  be  considered  by  all  who  wish  to  form  a  just  and 
complete  estimate  of  them. 

We  shall,  therefore,  notice  some  of  the  better  features 
strikingly  apparent  in  the  antagonistic  dualism  of  In- 
dian society,  particularly  in  the  two  more  civilized  and 
powerful  empires  of  our  continent.  Should  the  limits  of 
our  plan  allow,  we  might  also  detect  several  evidences 
of  advanced  culture  among  commonwealths  of  second- 
ary rank.  Of  these  we  shall,  however,  mention  but 
one  instance, — namely,  the  warlike  and  independent 
republic  of  Tlascala,  whose  capital,  of  the  same  name, 
must  have  been  of  considerable  size  and  importance, 
if,  as  Cortes  asserts,  thirty  thousand  souls  were  often 
gathered  in  the  market  on  public  days.  These  meet- 
ings were  a  sort  of  fairs  held,  as  usual  in  all  the  great 
towns  of  New  Spain,  every  fifth  day,  and  attended  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  adjacent  country,  who  brought 
there  for  sale  every  description  of  domestic  produce 
and  manufacture  with  which  they  were  acquainted. 
They  peculiarly  excelled  in  pottery,  which  is  considered 


844 


'  Supra,  pp.  250,  seq. 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF    WESTERN    AMERICA. 


345 


as  equal  to  the  best  in  Europe.  It  is  a  further  proof 
of  civilized  habits  that  the  Spaniards  found  barbers' 
shops  there  and  baths,  both  of  vapor  and  of  hot  water, 
habitually  used  by  the  inhabitants.  A  still  higher 
proof  of  refinement  may  be  discerned  in  a  vigilant 
police  that  repressed  everything  like  disorder  among 
the  people.^ 

A  regular  government  may  not  always  be  for  the 
benefit  of  the  larger  number  of  citizens,  but,  if  it  is 
always  a  sign  of  some  degree  of  civilization,  we  could 
not  universally  assert  that  Mexico,  Central  America, 
and  Peru  were  barbarous  countries.  Their  system  of 
civil,  military,  and  executive  administration  was  almost 
perfect ;  although,  while  tyrannical  absolutism  is  far 
inferior  to  free  republicanism,  we  must  remark  that 
the  American  civilized  aborigines  had  retrograded  on 
the  road  of  progress.  The  republic  of  Tlascala  was 
the  only  district  where  a  monarch  was  not  the  only 
ruler.  At  the  time  of  the  conquest  it  was  governed  by 
four  supreme  lords,  each  independent  in  his  own  terri- 
tory and  possessed  of  equal  authority  with  the  others 
in  matters  concerning  the  welfare  of  all.  A  parlia- 
ment, composed  of  these  four  lords  and  the  rest  of  the 
nobility,  settled  the  affairs  of  government,  especially 
those  relating  to  peace  and  war.'^ 

In  its  first  stages  the  Mexican  monarchy  partook 
rather  of  an  aristocratic  than  of  an  absolute  nature. 
Though  the  king  was  ostensibly  the  supreme  head  of 
the  state,  he  was  expected  to  confer  with  his  council, 
composed  of  the  royal  electors  and  other  exalted  per- 
sonages, before  deciding  upon  any  important  step ;  and, 
while  the  legislative  power  rested  entirely  in  his  hands, 
the  executive  government  was  intrusted  to  regularly 


\m 


IB  9 


'    f '  . 


^  Prescott,  .Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  464. 


Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  141. 


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346       HISTORY   OP    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

appointed  officials  and  courts  of  justice.  As  the  em- 
pire, owing  to  the  able  administration  of  a  succession 
of  conquering  princes,  enlarged  in  size,  the  royal 
power  gradually  increased  until  the  time  of  Monte- 
zuma II.,  when  the  authority  of  all  tribunals  was 
almost  reduced  to  a  dead  letter,  if  opposed  to  the  desires 
or  commands  of  the  king.  The  neighboring  powerful 
kingdom  of  Michoacan  was  likewise  governed  by  an 
absolute  monarch,^  as  also  were  the  Central  American 
States.  The  Incas  of  Peru  made  laws  and  had  them 
enforced,  according  to  their  personal  whims,  which 
were  considered  all  over  their  provinces  as  authentic 
interpretations  of  the  will  of  their  great  god,  the  sun. 

Another  evidence  of  civilization,  as  well  as  of  wicked- 
ness, were  the  codices  of  numerous  laws,  made  and  mul- 
tiplied by  America's  ancient  monarchs  and  sanctioned 
by  extreme  or  even  cruel  severity.  The  courts,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  apply  them  and  tx)  punish  their  trans- 
gressors, were  regularly  constituted  and  legally  graded. 
The  Mexicans  had  in  each  principal  city  of  the  empire 
a  supreme  judge,  who  heard  appeals  in  criminal  cases 
from  the  court  immediately  below  him,  and  from  whose 
decision  no  appeal  was  allowed.  Such  was  the  respect 
paid  to  this  exalted  personage,  that  whoever  had  the 
audacity  to  usurp  his  power  or  insignia  suffered  death, 
while  his  property  was  confiscated  and  his  family  en- 
slaved. The  next  court  was  supreme  in  civil  matters, 
and  could  only  be  appealed  from  in  cases  of  a  crimi- 
nal nature.  It  was  presided  over  by  three  subordinate 
judges.  Further,  there  was  in  each  ward  of  the  city 
a  magistrate  annually  elected  by  its  inhabitants,  and 
whose  office  resembled  that  of  our  municipal  judges. 
Appeal  lay  from  him  to  the  higher  civil  court.    Inferior 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  130. 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF   WESTERN    AMERICA.       347 

to  him  were  supervisors  of  a  certain  number  of  families, 
who  had  themselves  their  bailifls  and  constables.  The 
resemblance  of  the  tribunals  of  Tezcuco  to  those  of 
modern  times  was  greater  still. ^  Besides  the  various 
tribunals  for  the  general  administration  of  justice,  there 
were  others  that  had  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  a  peculiar 
nature  only.  There  was  a  court  of  divorce  and  another 
that  dealt  only  with  military  aifairs.  The  special  juris- 
diction of  another  tribunal  extended  over  matters  per- 
taining to  art  and  hcie'.ce,  while  a  fourth  had  charge  of 
the  royal  exchequer,  of  taxes,  and  tributes,  and  of 
those  employed  in  collecting  them.^ 

Nothing  seemed  to  be  lacking  in  the  form  of  admin- 
istering justice.  The  mode  of  procedure  in  the  law 
courts  of  Mexico  and  Tezcuco  was  strict  and  formal ; 
the  contesting  parties  were  defended  by  their  lawyers, 
and  brought  in  their  sworn  witnesses  ;  the  judges  hur- 
ried the  cases  to  an  end,  and  finally  the  sentence,  with 
the  whole  proceedings,  was  carefully  recorded. 

We  can  readily  presume  that  the  judges'  time  was 
mainly  taken  up  by  cases  of  justice,  when  we  consider 
that  commerce  was  quite  flourishing  among  the  civilized 
American  aborigines.  The  merchant  princes  of  Tlate- 
lulco,  which  formed  a  part  of  Mexico,  had  tribunals  of 
their  own,  to  which  alone  they  were  responsible  for  the 
regulation  of  all  matters  of  trade.  They  became  inso- 
lent and  overbearing,  meddling  without  scruple  in  the 
public  affairs  of  the  nations  through  whose  territory 
they  had  to  pass,  and,  trusting  to  the  dread  of  the 
armies  of  Mexico  for  their  own  safety,  their  caravans 
became  little  less  than  armed  bodies  of  robbers. 

Rulers,  however,  of  allied  or  friendly  provinces, 
mindful  of  the  benefits  procured   by   travelling   mer- 


A 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  434,  neq. 


Ibid.,  p.  442. 


aBBSSffi 


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348       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

chants,  constructed  roads  and  kept  them  in  repair,  fur- 
nished bridges  or  boats  for  crossing  unfordable  streams, 
and,  at  certain  points  remote  from  towns,  built  houses 
for  the  travellers'  accommodation. 

This  class  of  merchants  were  generally  on  the  roads, 
not  seldom  for  many  months  at  a  time,  exporting  goods 
from  their  own  home  and  importing  foreign  merchan- 
dise, to  be  displayed  on  the  public  market-places.  The 
market  of  Tlatelulco  was  the  grandest  in  the  country, 
and  Cortes  tells  us  that  more  than  sixty  thousand  per- 
sons assembled  there  every  day.  It  was  an  open  plaza, 
surrounded  with  porticos  or  booths,  in  which  were  ex- 
hibited all  kinds  of  food,  animal  and  vegetable,  cooked 
and  uncooked  ;  all  the  native  cloths  and  fabrics,  in  the 
piece  and  made  up  into  garments,  coarse  and  fine,  plain 
and  elaborately  embroidered  to  suit  the  taste  and  the 
means  of  the  purchasers ;  precious  stones  and  orna- 
ments of  metal,  feathers,  or  shells ;  implements  and 
weapons  of  metal,  stone,  and  wood  ;  building  material, 
— lime,  stone,  lumber,  and  brick  ;  articles  of  household 
furniture,  matting  of  various  degrees  of  fineness,  me- 
dicinal herbs  and  prepared  medicines,  fire-wood  and 
coal,  incense  and  censers,  cotton  and  cochineal,  tanned 
skins,  various  kinds  of  beverages,  an  infinite  variety 
of  dishes  and  pottery,  and  other  articles  too  numerous 
to  mention.* 

Nahua  trade  was  generally  carried  on  by  means  of 
barter  or  exchange  of  merchandise,  but  regular  pur- 
chases were  not  uncommon.  It  seems  that  there  was 
no  coined  money,  yet  several  substitutes  furnished  a 
medium  of  circulation.  Chief  among  these  were  grains 
or  bags  of  cacao,  of  a  species  somewhat  different  from 
that  employed  in  making  chocolate.    Gold-dust  kept  in 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  148  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  384. 


L;:A.g!'jiij.^v 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION    OF    WESTERN    AMERICA. 


349 


translucent  quills  was  another,  as  also  were  small  pieces 
of  copper,  of  tin,  and  of  cotton  clotli.^ 

The  mercantile  system  of  the  Maya  or  Central 
American  nations  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Mexi- 
can empire. 

The  Peruvians  were  not  a  commercial  people,  and 
had  no  knowledge  of  money.  In  this  they  were  infe- 
rior to  the  Mexicans,  but  in  another  respect  they  were 
superior  to  them,  since  they  made  use  of  weights  to  de- 
termine the  quantity  of  their  commodities — a  thing 
wholly  unknown  to  the  Aztecs.  This  fact  is  ascertained 
by  the  discovery  of  silver  balances,  adjusted  with  per- 
fect accuracy,  in  some  of  the  tombs  of  the  Incas.^ 

Coasting  vessels  on  both  oceans,  cano(  on  the  lakes, 
and  the  backs  of  thousands  of  carriers  brought  to  the 
Mexicans  the  produce  of  the  soil  and  the  industry  of 
foreign  nations,  which  they  repaid  with  the  fruits  of 
their  own  labor  and  skill. 

Their  looms  did  as  exquisite  work  as  ours  to-day. 
The  cotton  mantles  worn  by  their  nobility  and  princes 
were  of  exceeding  fineness  of  texture,  so  much  so  that 
it  required  an  expert  to  determine  whether  they  were 
of  cotton  or  of  silk,  says  Solis.^ 

In  this  branch  of  industry  they  were  equalled  by  the 
people  of  Peru,  who  manufactured  the  silken  vicugna 
wool  into  richly  colored  stuffs  of  so  beautiful  and  deli- 
cate a  texture  that  Philip  II.,  king  of  Spain,  with  all 
the  luxuries  of  Europe  and  of  Asia  at  his  command, 
did  not  disdain  to  use  them.* 


mi 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  148 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p. 
381.  A  cacao  nib  was  worth  about 
three  cents.  Bustamente  believes 
that  the  golden  quoits  with  which 
Montezuma  paid  his  losses  at  gam- 
bling also  served  Jis  money. 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  154,  155. 

'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  146 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  374. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  p.  29,  and  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega, 
Coment.,  pt.  i.  lib.  vi.  cap.  i. 


' 


rt  <■ 


I  -it'Siifii 


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If    r^    '^ 


r-i  ' 


i 


II 


H,. 


350       HIHTOllY    OF    AMP:RICA    before   COLUMBUS. 

Feather- work  was  another  industry  in  which  the 
Mexicans  excelled  all  nations.  The  noblest  ornaments 
of  their  grandees  were  the  state  mantles  woven  with 
the  feathers  of  the  humming-bird,  which,  so  highly 
praised  by  Cortes,  were  admired  in  Europe  more  than 
any  other  American  fabric.^  The  Tarascos  of  Michoa- 
can  were,  however,  their  competitors  in  this  particu- 
lar branch,  the  splendid  plumage  of  the  birds  of  this 
country  affording  them  abundant  material  for  artistic 
mosaics.'' 

Other  provinces  and  places  of  civilized  America  had, 
as  we  often  see  to-day,  their  own  peculiar  branches  of 
skilful  industry  in  which  they  surpassed  their  neigh- 
bors. All  ancient  authors  speak  of  the  pottery  of  the 
Mayas  as  most  excellent  in  workmanship,  material,  and 
painting,  and  even  excelling  that  of  Etruria.  Next  to 
it  was  the  earthenware  of  Cholula,  whose  jewellers 
were  renowned  far  and  wide,  as  well  as  its  potters. 
The  goldsmiths  of  Azcapuzalco,  the  painters  of  Tezcuco, 
and  the  shoemakers  of  Tenayocan  were  the  leaders  in 
their  respective  professions.^ 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  147 ;  Bancroft,  vol  iii.  p. 
301. 

»  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  515.  The  Pe- 
ruvians were,  in  all  these  branches 
of  industry,  the  rivals  of  the  North 
American  nations.  They  showed 
great  skill  in  the  manufacture  of 
different  articles  for  the  royal 
household,  from  the  delicate  ma- 
terial, which,  under  the  name  of 
"vigonia"  wool,  is  now  familiar 
to  the  looms  of  Europe.  It  was 
wrought  into  shawls,  robes,  and 
other  articles  of  dress  for  the  mon- 
arch, and  into  carpets,  coverlets, 
and  hangings  for  the  imperial  pal- 
aces and  the  temples.    The  cloth 


was  finished  on  both  sides  alike  ; 
the  delicacy  of  the  texture  was 
such  as  to  give  it  the  lustre  of  silk, 
and  the  brilliancy  of  the  dyes  ex- 
cited the  admiration  and  the  envy 
of  the  European  artisan.  The  Pe- 
ruvians produced  also  an  article  of 
great  strength  and  durability  by 
mixing  the  hair  of  animals  with 
wool ;  and  they  were  expert  in  the 
beautiful  feather-work,  which  they 
held  of  less  account  than  the  Mex- 
icans did,  from  the  superior  quality 
of  the  materials  for  other  fabrics 
which  they  had  at  their  command. 
(Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i. 
p.  149.) 
»  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  388,  752. 


HEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF    WEHTERN    AMERICA.       351 


Of  the  progreHs  in  mechanical  arte  in  Central  Amer- 
ica we  can  form  some  idea  from  the  dcHcription  which 
Bnusseur  de  Bourbourg  gives  of  the  gorgeous  furniture 
used  in  the  houses  of  the  wealthy  in  Yucatan.'  The 
stools,  he  writes,  on  which  they  seated  themselves  cross- 
legged  after  the  Oriental  fashion,  were  of  wood  and 
precious  metals,  and  often  made  in  the  shape  of  some 
animal  or  bird ;  they  were  covered  with  deer-skins 
tanned  with  great  care  and  embroidered  with  gold  and 
jewels.  The  interior  walls  were  sometimes  hung  with 
similar  skins,  though  more  frequently  decorated  with 
paintings  on  a  red  or  a  blue  ground.  Curtains  of  the 
finest  texture  and  most  brilliant  colors  fell  over  the  door- 
ways, and  the  stucco  floors  were  covered  with  mats  of 
exquisite  workmanship.  Rich-hued  cloths  covered 
the  tables.  The  plate  would  have  done  honor  to  a  Per- 
sian satrap.  Graceful  vases  of  chased  gold,  alabaater, 
or  agate,  worked  with  exquisite  art;  delicate  painted 
pottery  excelling  the  Etruscan,  candelabra  for  the 
great  odorous  pine  torches,  metal  braziers  diffusing 
sweet  perfumes,  a  multitude  of  little  trinkets,  such  as 
little  bells  and  grotesquely  shaped  whistles  for  sum- 
moning attendants ;  in  fact,  all  the  luxuries  which  are 
the  result  of  an  advanced  material  civilization  were 
found  in  the  homes  of  the  Maya  nobility. 

The  houses  that  contained  all  these  treasures  were  in 
proportion  with  them,  if  we  consider  their  dimensions 
and  material ;  but  they  all  were  low,  one-story  buildings. 
As  decorations,  we  find  balconies  and  galleries,  sup- 
ported by  square  or  round  pillars  which  were  often 
monoliths ;  but  as  these  were  adorned  with  neither 
capital  nor  base,  the  eftect  must  have  been  rather  bare.^ 

'  Histoire  dea  Nations  Civilis^es,  vol.  ii.  p.  787,  who  doubts,  how- 
t.    ii.   p.   68,  quoted  by  Bancroft,     ever,  the  accuracy  of  the  account. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  555. 


iiii? 


it 


!  U 


I 


?!  ■     ^ !  "  11 


i;-' 


352       HISTOKY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  tcocallis  or  temples,  raised  on  earthen  pyramids, 
consisted  at  times  of  two  or  even  three  stories,  but  were 
as  devoid  of  arehitectural  art  as  were  the  common 
dwellings.  The  entrances  and  angles  of  tlie  Mexican 
buildings  were  profusely  ornamentetl  with  images, 
sometimes  of  their  fantastic  deities  and  frecpiently  of 
animals,  and  the  latter  were  executed  with  great  accu- 
racy. Sculptured  images  were  so  numerous  that  the 
foundations  of  the  cathedral  of  Mexico  are  said  to  be 
entirely  composed  of  them.  The  most  remarkable 
piece  of  sculpture  yet  disinterred  is  the  great  calendar- 
stone  found  on  the  "  Plaza  Mayor"  of  the  city.  It 
consists  of  dark  porphyry,  and  in  its  original  dimen- 
sions, as  taken  from  the  quarry,  is  computed  to  have 
weighed  nearly  fifty  tons.  It  was  transported  from  the 
mountains  beyond  Lake  Chalco,  a  distance  of  many 
leagues,  over  a  broken  country  intersected  by  water- 
courses and  canals.  In  crossing  a  bridge  which  trav- 
ersed one  of  these  latter,  in  the  capital,  the  supports 
gave  way  and  the  huge  mass  was  precipitated  into  the 
water,  whence  it  was  with  difficulty  recovered.  The 
fact  that  so  enormous  a  fragment  could  be  thus  safely 
carried  for  leagues  in  the  face  of  such  obstacles  and 
without  the  aid  of  cattle — for  the  Aztecs  had  no  ani- 
mals of  draught — suggests  to  us  no  mean  ideas  of  their 
mechanical  skill  and  of  their  machinery,  and  implies  a 
degree  of  cultivation  little  inferior  to  that  demanded 
for  the  geometrical  and  astronomical  sciences  displayed 
in  the  inscriptions  of  this  very  stone.^ 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  pp.  148-146,  ref.  to  Gama, 
Descripcion,  pt.  i.  pp.  110-114  ; 
von  Humboldt,  Esaai,  t.  ii.  p.  40. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark,  says  Pres- 
cott (Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p. 
153)  that  the  Egyptians,  the  Mexi- 


cans, and  the  Peruvians  should 
never  have  detected  the  use  of 
iron,  which  lay  around  them  in 
abundance ;  and  that  they  should 
each,  without  any  knowledge  of 
the  others,  have  found  a  substitute 
for  it  in  such  a  curious  composi- 


HKMI-CIVILIZATION   OF    WEHTERN    AMERICA. 


853 


There  was  comfort  in  the  buildinjijH  of  new  Spain, 
but  these  had  no  beauty.  Art  had  dwindled  away 
since  the  ej)oc'h  of  the  Toltecs.  Sculpture,  the  noble 
maid  of  architecture,  although  far  from  insignificant, 
liad  followed  the  decline  of  its  miHtresH. 

Utility  was  the  best  feature  of  architectural  enter- 
prise at  the  time,  and  manifested  itself  most  particu- 
larly in  the  defensive  works  of  the  various  cities  and 
in  their  water-works,  that  might  still  })e  taken  as  models 
in  these  our  own  times.  S})ace  prevents  us  from  giving 
full  information,  but  we  shall  present  an  instance  of 
each.  Tlascala  was  well  defended  against  its  ancient 
Aztec  enemy  by  a  wall  of  stone  and  mortar,  which 
stretched  for  six  miles  across  a  valley,  from  mountain 
to  mountain,  and  formed  the  boundary  line  of  the 
republic.  This  wall  was  nine  feet  high,  twenty  feet 
broad,  and  surmounted  by  a  breastwork  a  foot  and  a 
half  in  thickness,  behind  which  the  defenders  could 
stand  while  striking  down  the  assailants  under  a  shower 
of  arrows  and  stones.  The  only  entrance  was  in  the 
centre,  where  the  walls  did  not  meet,  but  described  a 
semicircle,  one  overlapping  the  other,  with  a  space  ten 
paces  wide  and  forty  long  between  them.  The  other 
side  also  was  defended  by  breastworks  and  ditches.^ 

Military  architecture  was  not  less  advanced  in  the 
civilized  kingdom  of  our  southern  continent.  Towards 
the  north  of  Cuzco,  on  a  rugged  eminence,  rose  a  strong 
fortress,  the  remains  of  which  at  the  present  day  excite, 
by  their  vast  size,  the  admiration  of  the  traveller.  It 
was  defended  by  a  single  wall  of  great  thickness  and 
twelve  hundred  feet  long  on  the  side  facing  the  city, 
where  the  precipitous  character  of  the  ground  was  of 


tion  of  metals  as  gave  to  their  tools     that  has  been  lost  by  the  civilized 
almost  the  temper  of  steel,  a  secret     European. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  5fi8. 
I.— 28 


fl 


ES5SK: 


RRH 


m 


{'" 


i     i 


f 


(  I 


r 


354     HISTORY  OF  America  bicfork  columbus. 

itself  almost  sufficient  for  its  defence.  On  the  otlier 
quarter,  where  the  approaches  were  less  difficult,  it  was 
protected  by  two  other  semicircular  walls  of  the  same 
lenji^th  as  the  preceding.  The  fortress  proper  consisied 
of  three  towers,  one  iippropriated  to  the  Inca  and  the 
two  otl)ers  ()ccu})ied  by  the  garrison.  The  hill  was 
excavated  below  the  towers,  and  several  subterranean 
galleries  communicated  with  the  city  and  the  palaces 
of  the  Inca.  The  fortress,  the  walls,  and  the  galleries 
were  all  built  of  stone,  the  heavy  blocks  of  which  were 
not  laid  in  regular  courses,  but  so  disposed  that  the 
small  ones  might  fill  up  the  interstices  between  the  great. 
They  formed  a  sort  of  rustic  work,  being  roughly  hewn, 
except  towards  the  edges,  which  were  finely  wrought, 
and,  though  no  cement  was  used,  the  several  stones  were 
adjusted  with  so  much  precision  and  united  so  closely 
that  it  was  impossible  to  introduce  even  the  blade  of 
a  knife  between  them.  Many  of  these  blocks  were  of 
Cyclopean  size,  some  of  them  being  fully  thirty-eight 
feet  long  by  eighteen  broad  and  six  feet  thick. 

"  We  are  filled  with  astonishment,"  says  Prescott, 
"  when  we  consider  that  these  enormous  masses  were 
hewn  from  their  native  bed  and  fashioned  into  shape  by 
a  people  ignorant  of  the  use  of  iron  ;  that  they  were 
brought  from  quarries  from  twelve  to  forty-five  miles 
distant  without  the  aid  of  beasts  of  burden  ;  were  trans- 
ported across  rivers  and  ravines,  raised  to  their  ele- 
vated position  on  the  sierra,  and,  finally,  adjusted  there 
with  the  nicest  accuracy,  without  the  knowledge  of  tools 
and  machinery  familiar  to  the  European."  ^ 

Fortifications  are  the  most  im})erative  requirements 
of  a  city  in  time  of  war ;  water-works  are  the  first  in 
time  of  peace.     The  emperors  of  Mexico  waged    war 

'  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  pp.  lG-18,  ref.  to  a  number  of  unrient  authors. 


npp^ 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF    WESTERN    AMERICA.       355 

in  tlie  neighborliood,  {iiul  provided  for  peace  at  home. 
Their  ea|)ital  h.ad  exv:elleiit  water-works.  The  numer- 
ous fountiiins  which  adorned  it  were  fed  by  the  aqueduct 
that  l)rou«<ht  water  from  the  hill  of  Chapultepec,  about 
two  miies  off,  and  was  constructed  upon  a  causeway  of 
solid  masonry  five  feet  liigh  and  five  feet  broad,  run- 
ning [)arallel  t<?  the  T!aco})an  public  road.  This  a.juc- 
duct  consisted  of  two  pipes  of  masonry,  each  carrying 
a  volume  equal  in  bulk  t^)  a  man's  btnly,  or  to  three 
men's  bodies,  as  Las  Casas  says,  or  even  equal  to  the 
body  of  an  ox,  as  is  recorded  by  (iomara.  The  limpid 
fluid  was  conducted  by  branch  pipes  to  different  dis- 
tricts of  the  city  to  supply  fountains,  tanks,  ponds,  and 
baths.  At  the  numerous  canal  bridges  there  were  res- 
ervoirs, into  which  the  pipes  emptied  on  their  course, 
and  here  the  boatmen  who  made  it  a  business  to  sup- 
ply the  inhabitiints  with  water  received  their  cargoes 
on  the  payment  of  a  fixed  price.  A  vigilant  police 
watched  over  the  distribution  of  the  water  and  the  care 
of  the  pipes,  only  one  of  which  was  in  use  at  a  time, 
while  the  other  was  being  cleansed.  This  wouhl  remind 
a  visitor  of  the  Roman  "  A(pui  Pia,"  and  of  the  crystfil 
bottomless  spring  near  Subiaco,  with  the  remark,  how- 
ever, that  the  latter  water-works  are  in  many  respects 
inferior  to  those  of  ancient  Tenochtitlan.* 

We  might  fur' her  speak  at  length  of  another  proof 
of  ancient  m  m'xui  e".vili/-ation, — namely,  of  the  public 
roads  in  the  Sl.it'.';  oi  Central  America,  which  were, 
at  great  expense  of  public  wealth  and  labor,  built  and, 
every  year,  after  the  main  fall  of  rain,  carefully  rej)aired. 

Of  the  public  roads  of  Peru,  von  Humboldt  says  that 
they  may  be  compared  to  the  most  beautiful  highways 
of  the  Ronuins  which  he  has  seen  in  France,  Italy,  or 

'  Cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  565, 


l'^'"'l'*'W7''J*?  I 


i; 


t'l  li 


356       HISTORY    OF   AMP:RICA    before   COLUMBUS. 

Spain,  and  are  among  the  most  useful  and  stupendous 
works  executed  by  man/  Their  broken  remains  are 
still  in  sufficient  preservation  to  attest  their  former 
magnificence.  There  were  many  of  these  roads,  trav- 
ersing different  parts  of  the  kingdom,  but  the  most  con- 
siderable were  the  two  which  extended  from  Quito  to 
Cuzco,  and,  again  diverging  from  the  capital,  continued 
in  a  southern  direction  towards  Chili.  One  of  these 
passed  over  the  grand  plateau  of  the  Andes,  and  the 
other  along  the  lowlands  on  the  borders  of  the  ocean. 
The  former  was  much  the  more  difiicult  achievement, 
from  the  character  of  the  country.  It  was  conducted 
over  pathless  mountain-ranges  buried  in  snow ;  gal- 
leries were  cut  for  miles  through  the  living  rock ; 
rivers  were  crossed  by  means  of  bridges  that  swung  sus- 
pended in  the  air  ;  precipices  were  scaled  by  stairways 
hewn  out  of  the  native  bed  ;  ravines  of  hideous  depth 
were  filled  up  with  solid  masonry ;  in  short,  all  the 
difficulties  that  beset  a  wild  and  mountainous  region 
and  might  appall  the  most  courageous  engineer  of  mod- 
ern times  were  encountered  and  successfully  overcome. 
The  length  of  the  road  is  variously  estimated  at  from 
fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  miles.  Being  destined 
for  pedestrians  only,  as  there  were  no  beasts  of  burden 
but  the  small  llama  in  the  country,  its  breadth  scarcely 
exceeded  twenty  feet.  It  was  built  of  heavy  flags  of 
freestone,  and,  in  some  parts  at  least,  covered  with  a 
bituminous  cement,  which  time  had  made  harder  than 
the  stone  itself. 

The  other  road,  the  causeway  between  the  mountains 
and  the  ocean,  was  raised  on  a  high  embankment  of 
earth,  defended  on  either  side  by  a  wall  of  clay  or  stone ; 
and  trees  and  odoriferous  shrubs  were  planted  along  the 

*  Vues,  p.  294,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  67. 


i* 


I 


m 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION  OF   WESTERN  AMERICA. 


357 


ous 
are 
ner 
av- 
on- 
to 
ued 
lese 


margin,  regaling  the  sense  of  the  traveller  with  their 
perfumes  and  refreshing  him  by  their  shade,  so  grateful 
under  the  burning  sky  of  the  tropics.  All  along  these 
highways  caravansaries  were  erected  at  the  distance  of 
ten  or  twelve  miles  from  each  other,  for  the  accommo- 
dation more  particularly  of  the  Inca  and  his  suite,  but 
also  of  his  armies  and  those  who  journeyed  on  public 
business.     There  were  few  other  travellers  in  Peru.' 

Agriculture,  although  practised  without  the  aid  of 
any  beast  of  draught  and  with  the  most  rudimentary 
implements,  was  far  advanced  in  Peru.  Not  only  the 
fertile  table-lands  produced  an  abundant  harvest,  but 
immense  sand-wastes  were  made  to  yield  beautiful 
cereals  and  fruits  by  intelligent  irrigation  and  the  ap- 
plication of  fertilizers  of  different  kinds.  The  rough 
and  steep  mountain-sides  were,  at  great  expense  of  pa- 
tience and  labor,  divided  into  superimposed  terraces, 
which  greatly  added  both  to  the  beauty  and  the  rich- 
ness of  the  country. 

Trades  of  all  kinds,  inherited  from  father  to  son, 
had  likewise  attained  a  high  degree  of  perfection.^ 

As  in  Peru,  so  also  in  Mexico,  were  mechanical 
professions  hereditary  in  the  various  families,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  produced,  as  we  have  just  seen,  works 
still  deserving  of  admiration.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
Mexicans  were  not,  or  hardly,  inferior  to  the  Peruvians 
in  making  their  native  soil  produce  all  kinds  of  food. 

We  might  speak  of  many  more  actual  evidences  of 
the  culture  of  our  despised  natives,  but  we  rather  hurry 
on  to  find  more  conclusive  proofs  of  their  civilization 
as  not  unbecoming  rational,  human  beings,  and  truly 


! 


'  Other  interesting  particulars  of 
these  public  roads  may  be  foiuid  in 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i. 
pp.  62-69. 


'  Cf.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru, 
vol.  i.  pp.  131-138. 


Mt'i   ,'    I 


iff 


T 


M    !^I 


M 

I 

1 

^^b' 

'    V 

' 

i 

r-f- 

■^"  c " 

m 

i 

358       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

worth  the  name  ;  proof 8  which  consist  in  the  possession 
of  scientific  knowledge  and  of  religious  truth. 

The  last  two  kings  of  Tezcuco,  as  is  related  by  their 
descendant  Ixtlilxochitl,  generally  encouraged  arts  and 
sciences.  We  have  had  occasion  already  to  notice  that 
medicine  must  have  been  quite  a  i)opular  science  in 
Mexico.  Mathematics  had  attained  a  high  degree  of 
perfection,  and,  applied  to  astronomy,  had  produced  the 
most  wonderful  results.  The  Mexicans  were  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  movements  of  the  sun  and  the  moon, 
and  even  of  some  of  the  planets ;  while  celestial  phe- 
nomena, such  as  eclipses,  were  carefully  observed  and  re- 
corded. Their  method  of  computing  time,  for  ingenuity 
and  correctness,  equalled,  if  it  did  not  surpass,  the  sys- 
tems adopted  by  contemporaneous  European  and  Asiatic 
nations.  Their  ordinary  year  was,  like  ours,  of  three 
hundred  and  sixty-five  days,  })ut  they  knew,  as  well  as 
we,  that  this  length  of  time  did  not  complete  the  tropical 
year.  According  to  some  authors,  they  had,  as  we,  every 
four  years,  their  bissextile  or  leap-year ;  but  it  seems 
probable  that  they  returned  to  the  more  correct  astro- 
nomical time  at  the  end  only  of  their  cycle  of  fifty-two 
years  by  intercalating  thirteen  days.  Gania  asserts  that 
they  came  still  nearer  to  our  Intest  calculations  and  the 
almost  correct  calendar  introduced  by  Pope  Gregory 
XIII.  in  A.D.  1582  by  adding  only  twelve  days  and  a 
half  every  fifty-two  years.  "  They  waited  till  the  ex- 
piration of  fifty-two  vague  years,  when  they  interposed 
thirteen  days,  or  rather  twelve  and  a  half,  this  being 
the  number  which  had  fallen  in  arrear,"  says  Prescott.' 


'  Pancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  513,  514 ; 
Prescott,  (^onqueHt  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.  p.  115 ;  Brasseur  de  Bourboui^, 
Hist.  Nut.  Civ.,  t.  iii.  p.  4(M).  The 
correct  length  of  the  tropical  year, 
as  computed  by  Zivch  at  three  hun- 


dred and  sixty-live  days,  five  hours, 
forty-eight  minutes,  and  forty-eight 
seconds,  is  only  two  minutes  and 
nine  seconds  longer  than  the  Mexi- 
can, which  agrees  with  the  cele- 
brated calculation  of    the    aetron- 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION   OF    WESTERN    AMEKIC'A.       359 


It  would  be  as  tedious  as  useless  to  examine  in  what 
manner  they  performed  this  singular  intercalation, 
either  by  inserting  a  number  of  days  between  their 
cycles  or  by  adjusting  their  civil  and  ritual  years, 
which  latter  contained  only  two  hundred  and  sixty 
days.^  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  whole  computation  of 
time  was  marked  out  on  a  stone  known  as  the  Mexican 
calendar-stone,  which  bears  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
Aztecs'  wonderful  proficiency  in  astronomical  science. 

Nezahualcoyotl,  the  learned  king  of  Tezcuco,  divided 
the  burden  of  government  among  a  number  of  depart- 
ments, such  as  the  council  of  war,  the  council  of  finance, 
the  council  of  justice,  and  the  council  of  state.  He 
also  established  an  extraordinary  tribunal  called  the 
council  of  music,  which,  notwithstanding  its  restricted 
denomination,  was  devoted  to  the  encouragement  of 
science  and  art  generally.  Works  of  astronomy, 
chronology,  history,  or  of  any  other  science  were  re- 
quired to  be  submitted  to  its  judgment  before  they 
could  be  made  public.  This  censorial  power  was  of 
some  moment,  at  least  with  regard  to  the  branch 
of  history,  where  the  wilful  perversion  of  truth  was 
made  a  capital  offence  by  the  bloody  code  of  Nezahual- 
coyotl. This  body,  which  was  selected  from  the  best- 
instructed  persons  in  the  kingdom  with  little  regard  to 
rank,  had  supervision  of  all  the  productions  of  litera- 
ture and  art  and  of  the  nicer  fabrics.  It  decided  on  the 
qualifications  of  the  professors  in  the  various  branches 
of  science,  on  the  fidelity  of  their  instructions  to  their 
pupils,  the  deficiency  of  which  was  severely  punished, 
and  it  instituted  examinations  of  these  latter.    In  short, 


Ml 

'i  ':; 

\i 


I'.  '.■■ 


omers   of    the    Caliph    Almanion,  quest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  116,  n. 

which  fell  short  about  two  iniiuites  40. 

of    the   true  time.    See    Laplace,  '  Lord  Kingsborough,  Mex.  Ant. , 

Exposition,  p.  350 ;  Prescott,  Con-  vol.  vi.  pp.  103,  i04. 


360 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


it  was  a  board  of  education  for  the  country.  On  stated 
days  historical  compositions  and  poems  treating  of  moral 
or  traditional  topics  were  recited  before  it  by  their 
authors.  Seats  were  provided  for  the  three  kings  of 
Tezcuco,  Tenochtitlan,  and  Tlacopan,  who  deliberated 
with  the  other  members  of  the  council  on  the  respec- 
tive merits  of  the  productions,  and  distributed  prizes  of 
value  to  the  successful  competitors. 

Such  are  the  marvellous  accounts  transmitted  to  us 
of  this  institution,  an  institution  certainly  not  to  have 
been  expected  from  the  aborigines  of  America,  and 
deserving  of  imitation  to-day.  It  is  calculated  to  give 
us  a  higher  idea  of  the  refinement  of  the  people  than 
even  the  noble  architectural  remains  which  still  cover 
some  parts  of  the  continent.  Architecture  is,  to  a 
certain  extent,  a  sensual  gratification,  addressing  itself 
to  the  eye  ;  but  the  institution  in  question  was  a  literary 
luxury,  and  argued  the  existence  of  a  taste  in  the 
nation,  which  relied  for  its  gratification  on  pleasures  of 
a  purely  intellectual  character.^ 

I  A  liberal  education  was  not  allowed  the  children  of 
i  the  common  people  in  Peru  ;  the  acquisition  if  science 
,  was  exclusively  reserved  for  the  higher  caste,  for  fear 
that  the  low  populace  might  rise  up,  become  proud, 
and  impair  or  destroy  the  government.  It  was  enough 
for  these  to  learn  the  trades  of  their  parents,  without 
meddling  with  administration  and  bringing  public 
offices  into  disrepute.^  But  the  children  of  Inca  line- 
age and  of  curacas  or  provincial  governors  were  at  an 
early  age  placed  under  the  direction  of  the  amautas  or 
wise  and  learned  men,  to  be  instructed  in  all  the  diifer- 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  pp.  171-173,  ref.  to  Ixtlilxo- 
chitl.  Hist.  Chich..MS.,  cap.  xxxvi.; 
Clavigero,  Storia  del  Messico,  t.  ii. 


p.   137 ;    Veytia,  Hist.  Antig.,  lib. 
iii.  cap.  vii. 

'  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Coment., 
pt.  i.  lib.  viii.  cap.  viii. 


..„.i^. 


SEMI-CIVILIZATION    OF    WESTERN    AMfiRICA.       361 


ent  kinds  of  knowledge  in  which  the  teachers  themselves 
were  versed,  with  especial  reference  to  the  stations  they 
were  to  occupy  in  after-life.  They  were  initiated  in 
the  peculiar  rites  of  their  religion,  most  necessary  to 
those  who  were  to  assume  sacerdotal  functions,  and 
studied  the  laws  and  principles  of  the  administration, 
in  which  many  of  them  were  to  take  part.  They  all 
were  taught  to  speak  the  court  dialect  with  purity  and 
elegance,  and  to  acquire  a  proficiency  in  sciences  and 
liberal  arts.^ 

That  sciences  flourished  under  the  government  of  the 
Incas  is  amply  established  by  the  Commentaries  of 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega.^  The  title  of  the  twenty-first 
chapter  of  his  second  book  is  :  "Of  the  Sciences  known 
by  the  Incas,  and  first  of  Astronomy ;"  the  heading  of 
the  twenty-second  is  :  "  How  they  knew  to  reckon  the 
Length  of  the  Year,  the  Solstices  and  Equinoxes ;"  of 
the  twenty-third  :  "  They  reckoned  the  Solar  Eclipses, 
and  What  they  did  in  regard  to  those  of  the  Moon." 
In  Chapter  XXIV.  he  relates  "  their  science  of  medicine 
and  how  they  healed  the  sick ;"  in  the  twenty-fifth  he 
mentions  the  "  medicinal  plants,  with  whose  virtues 
they  were  acquainted ;  and  in  Chapter  XXVI.  he 
describes  "  their  knowledge  of  Geometry,  Geography, 
Arithmetic,  and  of  Music."  He  states,  in  particular, 
as  do  the  first  American  historians  generally,  that  the 
Peruvians  were  far  advanced  in  the  science  of  num- 
bers, recording  in  a  peculiar  manner,  by  means  of 
quipos  or  knots  made  in  strings  of  various  colors,  all 
the  taxes  and  contributions  paid  or  due  all  over  the 
Incas'  dominion.^ 


i 


lll'i] 


'  Prescott,     Conquest    of     Peru,  '  Garcilasso,  Comentarios,  lib.  ii. 

vol.  i.  pp.  li()-118.  cap.  XX vi.  p.  65. 

*  Comentarios,  lib.  ii.  cap.  xxi.- 
xxvi. 


!^    I 


362 


illHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BP^FORE   COLUMBUS. 


From  all  this  it  is,  indeed,  evident  enough  that  the 
few  civilized  nations  of  America  at  the  time  of  the 
Spanish  conquest  were  not  only  elevated  far  above 
the  savage  tribes  that  still  linger  among  us,  but  had 
attained  a  degree  of  culture  little  below  the  one  which 
we  admire  in  ancient  Athens  and  Rome.  Yet  we 
have  seen  before  that  they  were  grossly  deficient  in 
those  doctrines  which  are  the  indispensable  foundation 
of  all  civilization  worth  the  name, — that  is,  of  true  re- 
ligion and  consequent  morality.  Their  irreligion,  or 
rather  their  shameful  idolatry,  with  its  inseparable 
moral  degradation,  had  brought  them  down,  in  many 
respects,  to  the  lowest  rank  of  reasonable  beings ;  and 
still  in  the  midst  of  their  mental  and  moral  aberrations 
they  were  not  altogether  deprived  of  such  natural 
principles  and  truths  as  might  have  preserved  them 
from  falling  as  low  as  they  did. 


CHAPTER    XV. 

PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    PRESERVED    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 

When  we  consider  the  religious  system  of  the  Aztecs, 
we  are  struck  with  its  apparent  incongruity  ;  as  if  some 
portion  of  it  had  emanated  from  a  comparatively  re- 
fined people,  open  to  gentle  influences,  while  the  rest 
breathes  a  spirit  of  unmitigated  ferocity.  It  naturally 
suggests  the  idea  of  two  distinct  sources,  and  author- 
izes the  belief  that  the  Aztecs  had  inherited  from  their 
predecessors  a  milder  faith,  on  which  was  afterwards 
engrafted  their  own  mythology.  The  latter  was  domi- 
nant and  gave  its  dark  coloring  to  the  creeds  of  the 
conquered  nations,  and  the  funereal  superstition  settled 
over  the  farthest  borders  of  Anahuac.^ 

They  worshipped  the  sun  and  other  creatures,  they 
lavished  divine  honors  upon  cruel,  sanguinary  devils, 
represented  by  grotesque,  forbidding,  and  filthy  statues, 
although  they  had  some  idea  and,  we  might  almost  say,  a 
true  knowledge  of  the  '''Ayvcia'toi  ©eco,'"^  Unknown  God. 

It  is  a  point  of  Christian  doctrine  that  no  one  can  be 
saved  without  the  belief  in  the  One  God,  and  we  might 
reasonably  doubt  whether  the  Almighty  has  ever  al- 
lowed his  existence  to  be  forgotten  by  any  nation  on 
earth.  The  writers  who  treat  of  the  history  of  the 
American  races  avow  that,  at  the  time  of  the  landing  of 
the  Spaniards  on  the  Western  Continent,  there  was  not 
one  that  did  not  recognize  the  existence  of  a  Supreme 
Deity  and  Arbiter  of  the  universe.  The  notion  of  a 
unique  immaterial  Being,  of  an  invisible  power,  had 
survived  the  shipwreck  of  pure  primitive  creeds.    Thus 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of    Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  57. 


'  Acta  xvii.  23. 


868 


I    HJ-IMWIUm 


i 


UJ} 


I'll 


'i  I 


364        HISTORY    OF    AMEKICA    BEFORE   COLUMBITH. 

writes  the  infidel  Bancroft.'  Max  Miiller  says  that 
lienotheism,  which  is  the  temporary  pre-eminence  of 
one  God  over  the  host  of  gods,  was  as  near  monotheism 
as  the  American  aborigines  ever  came  ;  but  the  merits  of 
this  assertion  consist  in  its  novelty.  Squier,^  although 
inclined  to  find  in  the  forces  of  nature  the  motive  of 
American  myths,  maintains  that  there  was  a  sort  of  ru- 
dimentary monotheism  pervading  all  America's  reli- 
gious views.''  "  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,"  says  Prescott,* 
"  that  many,  if  not  most,  of  the  rude  tribes  inhabiting 
the  vast  American  continent,  however  disfigured  their 
creeds  may  have  been  in  other  respects  by  a  childish 
superstition,  had  attained  to,"  or  rather  preserved,  "  the 
sublime  conception  of  one  Great  Spirit,  the  Creator  of 
the  universe,  who,  immaterial  in  his  nature,  was  not 
to  be  dishonored  by  an  attempt  at  visible  representa- 
tion ;  and  who,  pervading  all  space,  was  not  to  be  cir- 
cumscribed within  the  walls  of  a  temple."  ^  Thus 
did  the  wild  Chippeways  recognize  the  "  Merciful 
Spirit,"  their  "  Gitchymonedo,"  who  had  produced 
heaven  and  earth  by  a  powerful  act  of  his  will." 

With  some  the  idea  of  one  Supreme  God  was  but 
vague  and  hazy,  while  with  others  it  was  quite  definite 
and  distinct.  Ixtlilxochitl  has  preserved  some  poems 
of  his  ancestor,  Nezahualcoyotl,  who  died  in  the  year 
1472,  king  of  Tezcuco,  which  would  justify  the  as- 
sertion of  the  Spanish  historian  telling  us  that  that 
king  worshipped  one  invisible  God,  the  likeness  of 
whom  it  was  impossible  for  mortal  to  conceive.^  Kings- 
borough  extracts  a  statement  from  the  same  native 
author's    "Historia  Chichimeca"  when  he   says   that 


»  Vol.  iii.  p.  186. 

'  Serpent  Symbol  in  America. 

•  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  430. 

*  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  87. 
•'  Brownell,  p.  25. 


•  Luken,  S,  23  ;  ref.  to  School- 
craft, the  American  Indians,  p.  203, 
and  Ausl.,  1857,  nr.  33,  S.  792. 

'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  289. 


f«pp 


PRIiMEVAL    TIIIITHS    IN    ANCFKNT    AMKRICA.        .'J65 

NezuliualcoyotI  lield  tor  faKst'  all  the  gods  which  tlie 
peoph'  of  that  land  adored,  asHertiiig  that  they  were 
but  statues  or  demons  hostile  to  the  human  race  ;  **  for 
he  was  very  wise  in  moral  questions,  and  no  man  took 
more  trouble  in  searching  where  lie  might  find  light 
to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  the  true  God  and  Cre- 
ator of  all  things,  as  has  been  seen  in  the  Discourse  of 
his  history,  and  as  bear  testimony  the  songs  which  he 
composed  on  this  subject."  ^  In  tliese  hymns  he  said 
that  there  is  but  one  (xod,  the  Maker  of  heaven  and 
earth,  who  sustained  all  He  had  made  and  created, 
and  that  He  dwelt  where  was  no  second,  above  the 
nine  heavens,  where  He  alone  could  reach  ;  that  He 
had  never  been  seen  in  human  shape  or  any  other 
form  ;  that  after  death  the  souls  of  the  virtuous  go 
to  dwell  with  Him,  and  that  those  of  the  wicked  go 
to  another  place,  the  lowest  of  the  earth,  a  place  of 
hardships  and  horrible  pains. 

Ixtlilxochitl,  as  reported  by  Prescott,'*  relates  that 
his  ancestor  Nezahualcoyotl  having  been  married  some 
years  without  the  blessing  of  issue,  the  priests  repre- 
sented to  him  that  it  was  owing  to  his  neglect  of  the 
gods  of  his  country,  and  that  the  only  remedy  was  to 
propitiate  them  by  human  sacrifice.  The  king  reluc- 
tantly consented,  and  the  altars  once  more  smoked  with 
the  blood  of  slaughtered  captives.  But  it  was  all  in 
vain ;  and  he  indignantly  exclaimed,  "  Forsooth,  the 
gods  that  I  now  worship,  and  are  idols  of  stone  that 
neither  speak  nor  feel,  could  never  make  the  beautiful 
heavens,  the  sun  and  the  stars  which  illumine  them 
and  give  light  to  the  earth ;  nor  the  rivers,  the  waters, 
the  fountains,  the  trees,  and  the  plants  that  beautify 
the  earth ;    nor  the  nations  that  possess  it ;    nor  any 


'  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  ix.  p.  2(51.  '  Conq.  of  Mex.,  vol.  i.  p.  192. 


1'  I 


:i()() 


HIMTORY    OF    AMKKICA    UKFORK    C'OLUMBUH. 


:    il     ,   i  t'V 


%.    t 


other  creature.  Some  luowt  powerful  God,  niynteriouB 
and  uuknowu,  must  be  tlie  Creator  of  the  whole  uni- 
verne.  It  Ih  lie  alone  that  eau  console  nie  in  my 
affliction  and  succor  nie  in  the  great  anguish  under 
which  my  heart  is  suilering." 

He  then  withdrew  to  his  rural  palace  of  Teyx'otzinco, 
where  he  remained  forty  days,  fasting,  and  praying  at 
stated  hours,  and  ottering  up  no  other  sacrifice  than  the 
sweet  incense  of  copal  and  aromatic  herbs  and  gums. 
At  the  expiration  of  this  time  he  is  said  to  have  been 
comforted  by  a  vision  assuring  him  of  the  success  of 
his  petition.  At  all  events,  such  proved  to  be  the  fact ; 
and  this  was  followed  by  the  cheering  intelligence  of 
the  triumph  of  his  arms  in  a  quarter  where  he  had 
lately  experienced  some  humiliating  reverses. 

Greatly  strengthened  in  his  former  religious  con- 
victions, he  now  openly  professed  his  faith,  and  was 
more  earnest  to  wean  his  subjects  from  their  degrading 
superstitions  and  to  substitute  nobler  and  more  spiritual 
conceptions  of  the  Deity.  He  built  a  temple  in  the 
usual  pyramidal  form,  and  on  the  summit  a  tower  nine 
stories  high  to  represent  the  nine  heavens ;  a  tenth 
was  surmounted  by  a  roof  painted  black,  profusely 
gilded  with  stars  on  the  outside  and  incrusted  with 
metals  and  precious  stones  within.  He  dedicated  this 
sanctuary  to  "  the  Unknown  God,  the  Cause  of  Causes." 
No  image  was  allowed  in  the  edifice,  as  unsuited  to  the 
/*  Invisible  God,"  and  the  people  were  expressly  pro- 
hibited from  profaning  the  altars  with  blood  or  any 
sacrifice  other  than  that  of  the  perfume  of  flowers  and 
sweet-scented  gums. 

Rafinesque^  relates  that  the  Supreme  God  of  the 
Haytians   bore   five   significant    names,    preserved   by 


'  P.  166. 


!ZiiN: 


I'KIMKVAL    TRIITHH    IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.        367 


Futhcr  Ronmii,  who  was  one  of  the  first  Imnd  of 
Clirintian  nuHHioiiarioH  in  Anicrica  after  (yohiinl)U8'8 
diseovery.  Tliey  were,  first,  "  Attahei,"  tlie  One  Being ; 
second,  "Jenias,"  the  Eternal;  third,  "  Guacas"  or 
"  Apito,"  the  Infinite  ;  fourth,  "  ISielhi,"  the  Almighty  ; 
fifth,  "  Zuiniaeo,"  the  Invisible. 

The  ('hilians  had  similar  names  for  their  Supreme 
God,  whom  they  considered  as  father  or  mother  of 
another  great  deity  dwelling  in  the  sun. 

It  is  remarkable,  says  Miiller,'  that  Acosta  should 
have  known  nothing  about  the  adoration  of  a  highest 
invisible  God  in  Mexico  under  the  name  of  Teotl.'* 
And  yet  this  adoration  has  been  reported  in  the  most 
certain  manner  by  others,  and  made  evident  from  more 
exact  statements  regarding  the  nature  of  this  deity. 
He  has  been  surnamed  Ipalmemoani, — thai  is,  He 
through  whom  we  live ,  and  Tloquenahuaque,  which 
means,  according  to  Molina,  who  is  the  best  authority  in 
matters  of  Mexican  idiom,  He  upon  whom  depends  the 
existence  of  all  things,  preserving  and  sustaining  tliem.^ 

The  true  God  was  little  honored  by  the  more  savage 
tribes,  but  prayers  were  often  offered  to  him  in  the 
Mexican  empire,  and  these  prayers  present  a  more 
complete  description  of  Him.  The  following  extract 
from  one  made  in  time  of  war  clearly  establishes  his 
acknowledged  superiority  over  all  other  gods  :  "  .  .  . 
See  good,  O  our  Lord,  that  the  nobles  who  die  in  the 
shock  of  war  be  peacefully  and  agreeably  received, 
and  with  bowels  of  love  by  the  Sun  and  the  Earth, 
that  are  father  and  mother  of  all.  ..."  Sahagun 
relates  another  prayer  descriptive  of  the  true  Christian 


'  Amerikanische  Urreligionen,  S.  Culturgeschichte,   Bd.    v.    S.    114  ; 

473,  in  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  \H:^.  Brantz  Mayer,  Mexico  aa  it  was, 

'  e«d5.  Dens.  p.  110,  ap.  Bancroft,   vol.  iii.   pp. 

3  Cf.     Kastner,   p.   42 ;    Klenini,  184,  188. 


jiMki&i^^tittJki^ 


!V, 


'  1 


',»    ii  ■ 


368       HI8T0RY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORK   COLUMBUS. 

God  :  ^  *'  O  God  Almighty,  who  givest  life  to  man,  who 
callest  us  thy  servants,  do  me  the  signal  mercy  of  giving 
me  all  that  I  stand  in  need  of;  let  me  enjoy  thy  clem- 
ency, thy  kindness  and  sweetness ;  have  pity  on  me, 
open  the  hands  of  Thy  bounty  towards  me."  A  prayer 
to  get  rid  of  a  bad  ruler,  translated  from  the  same 
Sahagun,'^  commences  as  follows :  "  O  our  Lord,  most 
clement,  that  givest  shelter  to  every  one  that  approaches, 
even  as  a  tree  of  great  height  and  breadth ;  thou  that 
art  invisible  and  impalpable,  thou  art,  as  we  under- 
stand, able  to  penetrate  the  stones  and  the  trees,  see- 
ing what  is  contained  therein.  For  this  same  reason 
thou  seest  and  knowest  what  is  within  our  hearts,  and 
readest  our  thoughts.  Our  soul  in  thy  presence  is  as  a 
little  smoke  or  fog  that  rises  from  the  earth.  It  cannot 
at  all  be  hidden  from  thee,  the  deed  and  the  manner  of 
living  of  any  one,  for  thou  seest  and  knowest  his  secrets 
and  the  sources  of  his  pride  and  ambition.  Thou 
knowest  that  our  ruler  has  a  cruel  and  hard  heart,  and 
abuses  the  dignity  that  thou  hast  given  him.  .  .  ."^ 
Short*  is  not  serious  when  he  derides  Lord  Kings- 
borough  for  believing  that  the  Mexicans  worshipped 
an  invisible,  incorporeal  Unity. 

The  Peruvian  Inca,  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,*^  writes 
of  his  own  nation  that  they  adored  the  sun  as  their 
visible  god,  but  the  Inca  kings  and  their  friends,  the 
philosophers,  discovered  by  the  means  of  natural  reason 
the  true  Supreme  God  our  Lord,  who  created  heaven 
and   earth,  and    whom    they   called    "  Pachacamac."" 

'  T.  i.  p.  xxvii.  •  The  belipf  in  one  Supreme  God 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  217.  existed  in   I'cru  before  the  advent 

'  Cf.  Prescott,  (!onquBst  of  Mex-  of    the   Inca  dynuHty,   as   apjMjars 

ico,  vol.  i.  p.  58.  from  the  fact  that  tlu^  t<unple  of 

*  P.  4t)0.  Piichacaniac  wa«  built  long  before, 

'  ComentarioB,  lib.  ii.  cap.  ii.  p.  not  far  from  Lima,  in  a  province 

34.  conquered    by    them.      (Preacott, 


pppwppwppppr 


rniMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


369 


Pachaoajiiac  is  a  word  composed  of  "  PacJia,"  signify- 
ing the  universe,  and  of  "  camac,"  whicli  is  the  present 
participle  of  the  verb  "  cama,"  that  means  to  animate. 
They  held  this  sacred  name  in  such  veneration  that 
they  did  not  dare  to  pronounce  it ;  and  when  they  were 
coir.polli^d  to  use  it,  they  did  so  only  with  the  greatest 
d  lemons irations  of  veneration  and  worship.  When 
asked  who  Pachacamac  was,  they  answered  that  it  was 
he  who  gave  life  to  all  that  lives,  and  supports  it  all ; 
that  they  did  not,  however,  know  him,  and,  therefore, 
built  no  temples  for  him  nor  offered  him  sacrifices,  but 
that  they  worshipped  him  in  their  hearts  and  held  him 
as  the  Unknown  God.' 

Winsor  says,  "  The  religion  of  the  Incas  and  of  the 
learned  Peruvians  was  a  worship  of  the  Supreme  Cause 
of  all  things,  the  ancient  God  of  earlier  dynasties,  com- 
bined with  veneration  for  the  sun  as  the  ancestor  of  the 
reigning  dynasty,  for  the  other  heavenly  bodies,  and  for 
the  *  malqui'  or  remains  of  their  forefathers."  Again, 
"  The  weight  of  evidence  is  decisively  in  the  direction 
of  a  belief  on  the  part  of  the  Incas,  that  a  Supreme 
Being  existed,  which  the  sun  must  obey  as  well  as  all 
other  parts  of  the  universe.  This  subordination  of  the 
sun  to  the  Creator  of  all  things  was  inculcated  by  suc- 
cessive Incas.  They  did  not  know  the  sun  as  their 
creator,  but  as  created  by  the  Creator,  says  Molina. 
Salcamayhua  tells  us  how  the  Inca  Mayta-Capac  taught 
that  the  sun  and  moon  were  made  for  the  service  of 
man,  and  how  the  chief  of  the  Collas,  addressing  the 
Inca  Vira-Cocha,  exclaimed,  '  Tliou,  O  powerful  Ix)rd 
of  Cuzco,   dost  worship  the  Teacher  of  the  universe, 


Conquest  of  Pent,  vol.  i.  p.  91,  ref.        '  Cf.  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  Amer- 
to  Pedro  Pizarro,  Deecub.  y  Conq.,     icii,  p.  4H7. 
MS.,  and  SarniienU),  Relacion,  MS., 
cap.  xxvii. ;  and  vol.  i.  pp.  442, 443. ) 
I.— 24 


k- 


V     It 


:a 


1  1 


870       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

while  I,  the  chief  of  the  CoUas,  worship  the  sun.'  The 
evidence  on  the  subject  of  the  religion  of  the  Incas, 
collected  by  the  viceroy  Toledo,  shows  that  they  wor- 
shipped the  Creator  of  all  thing!=!  though  they  also  ven- 
erated the  sun ;  and  Montesinos  mentions  an  edict  of 
the  Inca  Pacha-Cutec,  promulgated  with  the  object  of 
enforcing  the  worship  of  the  Supreme  God  above  all 
other  deities.  The  speech  of  the  Inca  Tupac- Yupan- 
qui,  showing  that  the  sun  was  not  God,  but  was  obeying 
laws  ordained  by  God,  is  recorded  by  Acosta,  Bias 
Valera,  and  Balboa,  and  was  evidently  deeply  im- 
pressed on  the  minds  of  their  Inca  informers.  The 
In^a  compared  the  sun  to  a  tethered  beast,  which 
always  makes  the  same  round,  or  to  a  dart,  which  goes 
where  it  is  sent  and  not  where  it  wishes.  The  prayers 
from  the  Inca  ritual,  given  by  Molina,  are  addressed  to 
the  god  Ticsi  Viracocha ;  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  the 
thunder  being  occasionally  invoked  in  conjunction  with 
the  principal  deity. 

"  The  worship  of  tliis  creating  God,  the  Dweller  in 
space,  the  Teacher  and  Ruler  of  the  universe,  had  been 
inherited  by  the  Incas  from  their  ancient  predecessors 
of  the  Cyclopean  age."  ' 

His  own  mysterious  existence  is  not  the  only  truth 
which  God  has  manifested  to  mankind  ;  and,  although 
the  greater  portion  of  primordial  revelation  had,  in  the 
course  of  centuries,  become  dim  and  obscure  and  almost 
forgotten,  yet  unmistakable  traces  and  evidences  of  sev- 
eral more  of  its  teachings  were  to  be  found  on  our  hemi- 
sphere at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

It  cannot  be  denied  tliat  even  the  profoundest  of  all 
mysteries,  the  doctrine  of  the  Blessed  Ti'inity,  was  held 
in  several  parts  of  America,  illustrated  sometimes  by 


1 

,    1 

1 
i 

M 

\wi 

»  WiiiHor,  vol.  i.  p.  2H2. 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIKNT    AMERICA. 


371 


suoli  particulars  as  would  make  us  believe  that  here,  as 
in  the  Old  World,  it  had  been  revived  by  Christianity. 

Rafinesque  assures  us  ^  that  traces  of  a  triple  god,  as 
he  styles  it,  have  been  found  from  Ohio  to  Peru  ;  in  fact, 
all  over  America.^  The  Cochimis,  a  Californian  tribe, 
were  in  possession  of  a  remarkable  tradition,  says 
Gleeson.^  They  believed  in  the  existence  in  heaven  of 
an  omnipotent  Being,  whose  name,  in  their  language, 
signified  "  He  who  lives."  He  had,  they  affirmed,  two 
sons  begotten  unto  him  without  any  communication 
with  woman.  The  first  had  two  names,  one  of  which 
implied  "  perfection"  and  the  other  "  velocity."  The 
name  of  the  second  was  "  He  who  maketh  lords." 
Although  they  gave  the  title  of  Lord  indifferently  to 
all  three,  when  asked  by  the  missionaries  how  many 
/spirits  there  were,  they  answered,  "Only  one,  he  who 
created  all  things." 

Father  Roman  speaks  of  a  triune  God  of  the  Hay- 
tians.* 

In  Cundinamarca  or  Bogota  the  god  or  deified  apos- 
tle Bochica  was  represented  with  a  triple  head,  and  this 
strange  symbol  was  to  remind  his  worshippers  of  three 
persons  in  one  God.'^ 

Acosta**  writes  :  "  In  Peru  there  was  some  similarity 
to  our  dogma  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  in  their  Chief- 
sun,  Son-sun,  and  Brother-Sun.  I  remember  that, 
being  in  Chuquisaca,  an  honourable  priest  shewed  me 
an  information,  which  I  had  long  in  my  hands,  where 
it  was  prooved  that  there  was  a  certain  Huaca  or  ora- 
tory, whereas  the  Indians  did  worship  an  idoU  called 
Tangatanga,  which  they  said,  was  One  in  three  and 
Three  in  one.     And  as  this  priest  stood  amazed  thereat. 


>  P.  69. 

» P.  191. 

»  Vol.  i.  p.  137. 


*  Rafinesque,  p.  191. 
^  Kastner,  p.  41. 

•  Bk,  V.  c5i.  xxviii.  p.  373. 


i  I    ! 


372       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

I  saide  that  the  devill  had  taught  it,  stealing  it  from 
the  Eternal  Truth  for  himself!"^ 

The  mystery  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  seems  not  to 
have  been  altogether  unknown  to  the  Mexicans.  On 
the  20th  of  March  they  celebrated  the  first  feast  of 
their  year,  in  honor  of  an  idol  which,  although  one, 
they  worshipped  under  three  different  names,  and,  al- 
though having  three  names,  they  worshipped  as  one  and 
the  same  god  ;  almost  in  a  manner  in  which  we  believe 
in  the  most  holy  Trinity.  The  names  of  the  god  were 
"  Totec,"  the  frightful  and  terrible  Lord  ;  "  Xipe,"  the 
disconsolate  and  maltreated  Man  ;  "  Tlatlauhquitezcatl," 
the  Mirror  flaming  with  splendor.  And  this  idol  was 
not  a  local  one,  but  its  feast  was  celebrated  all  over 
the  land  as  being  that  of  the  universal  deity .'"^ 

The  natives  of  Campeche  assured  the  Spanish  mis- 
sionaries that  their  religious  teacher,  Quetzalcohuatl, 
had  given  them  images  to  explain  his  doctrine,  and,  in 
particular,  a  triangular  stone,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
Blessed  Trinity,  with  which  mystery  they  were  well 
acquainted,  says  Sahagun,  and  in  whose  name  they  were 
baptized.'* 

We  know  of  the  Quiclu'  trinity  in  Guatemala,  "  Toliil, 
Awilix,  and  Gucumatz,"  *  but  nowhere  in  Central  Amer- 
ica nor  in  any  part  of  our  continent  was  the  dogma  of 
the  Blessed  Trinity  more  explicitly  or  more  accurately 
known  and  believed  than  among  the  Chiapans.  And 
to  say  this  we  have  no  less  an  authority  than  the  first 
bishop  of  Chiapa,  B.  de  las  Casas  himself,  who  writes :  ^ 


*  Baatian  states  that  the  Peruvian 
Mecca,  the  lake  of  Titicaca,  was 
the  principal  place  for  worship  of 
the  Penivian  trinity,  Apnynti, 
Churiynti,  and  Yntiphuanque. 
(Bd.  i.  S.  485.) 

'^  Duran,  t.  ii.  p.  147. 


*  Hist.  Gren.,  vol.  i.  p.  xx  :  " .  .  . 
la  Trinidad,  qne  conocian  niuy 
bien,  y  en  cnyo  nombre  se  banti- 
zaban  todos." 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  648. 

"  Coleccion  de  Docunientos,  t. 
Ixvi.  caj).  cxxiii.  p.  458. 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


373 


"  There" — i.e.,  near  a  seaport  of  his  diocese — "  I  found 
a  good  secular  priest,  oi  mature  age  and  honorable, 
who  knew  the  language  of  the  Indians,  having  lived 
among  them  several  years ;  and  because  I  was  obliged 
to  travel  on  to  the  chief  town  of  my  diocese,  I  ap- 
pointed him  my  vicar,  asking  him  and  giving  him 
charge  to  visit  the  tribes  of  the  inland,  and  to  preach 
to  them  in  the  manner  that  I  gave  him.  The  same 
priest,  after  some  months,  or  even  a  year,  as  I  think, 
wrote  to  me  that  he  had  met  with  a  chief  from  whom 
he  had  made  inquiries  in  regard  to  his  ancient  belief 
and  religion,  which  they  were  used  to  follow  in  that 
country.  Tlie  Indian  answered  him  that  they  knew 
and  believed  in  God  who  dwells  in  the  heavens,  and 
that  that  God  is  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  The 
Father's  name  was  Icona,  and  he  had  created  man  and 
all  tilings ;  the  Son  had  for  name  Bacab,  and  he  was 
born  from  a  maiden  always  virgin,  called  Chibirias, 
that  lives  in  the  heavens  with  God.  The  Holy  Ghost 
they  called  Echuac.  They  say  that  Icona  means  the 
Great  Father ;  of  Bacab.  who  is  the  Son,  thev  tell 
that  Eopuco  put  him  to  death,  had  him  scourged,  and 
placed  a  crown  of  thorns  on  his  head,  and  hung  him 
with  extended  arms  from  a  pole ;  not  meaning  that 
he  was  nailed,  but  bound  to  it;  and  to  better  explain, 
the  chief  extended  his  own  arms.  There  he  finally 
died,  and  remained  dead  three  days,  and  the  third  day 
he  came  to  life  again  and  ascended  to  Heaven,  where 
he  is  now  with  his  Father.  Immediately  after  came 
fCchuac,  who  is  the  Holy  Ghost  and  who  supplied  the 
earth  with  all  that  was  needed.  When  the  Indian  was 
asked  the  meaning  of  Bacab  or  Bacabab,  he  said  that 
it  meant  Son  of  the  Great  Father,  and  that  the  name 
Echuac  signified  Merchant.  And,  in  fact,  the  Holy 
Ghost  brought  good  merchandises  to  the  earth,  since 


!    If 


^S'    ' 


;i74        HISTORY    OF    AMERK^A    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

he  satiated  the  world,  that  is,  the  people  of  the  world, 
with  his  abundant  divine  gifts  and  graces." 

The  reader  will  allow  us  to  make  a  short  digression 
by  adding  a  few  more  lines  from  Las  Casas's  quaint 
and  interesting  relation.  "  Chibirias,"  he  continues, 
"  means  Mother  of  the  Bon  of  the  Great  Father,  The 
chief  further  said  that  all  men  must  die  for  a  time,  but 
they  knew  nothing  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  .  .  . 
The  common  people,  however,  believe  only  in  three  per- 
sons, Icona  and  Bacab  and  Echuac,  and  in  Chibirias, 
the  mother  of  Bacab,  and  in  the  mother  of  Chibirias, 
called  Hischen,  who,  as  we  say,  was  St.  Ann.  All  the 
foregoing  thus  said  was  written  to  me  by  that  secular 
priest  named  Francis  Hernandez,  and  I  keep  his  letter 
among  my  papers.  He  further  said  that  he  took  that 
chief  to  a  friar  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis  who  was 
stationed  in  that  neighborhood,  and  had  him  to  repeat 
it  all  before  the  Franciscan.  Both  priests  were  left  in 
wonderment.  If  those  things  are  true,  it  would  seem 
that  our  holy  faith  was  announced  in  that  land ;  but 
in  no  other  part  of  the  Indies  have  we  obtained  such 
information,  although  some  imagine  to  have  found  in 
the  land  of  Brazil,  now  in  possession  of  the  Portu- 
guese, fcjme  traces  of  the  apostle  St.  Thomas;^  and 
such  doctrine  did  not  extend  farther. 

"  At  any  rate,  the  land  and  kingdom  of  Yucatan 
offer  things  more  strange  and  more  ancient  than  other 
countries,  as,  for  instance,  its  grand  edifices,  built  in  an 
admirable  and  exquisite  manner,  and  its  writings  with 
characters  of  a  special  kind.  All  this  is  a  secret,  which 
God  only  knows." 

Most  subsequent  authors,  commencing  with  Torque- 
mada,'^  have  admitted  and  more  or  less  correctly  copied 
Las  Casas's  puzzling  report. 


'  Supra,  p.  219. 


'•'  T.  iii.  lib.  xv.  cap.  xlix.  p.  lliS. 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


875 


We  shall,  farther  on,  try  to  elucidate  the  secret,  but 
must,  for  the  present,  give  our  attention  to  the  preser- 
vation by  the  American  natives  of  a  few  more  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  primeval  revelation,  such  as  the 
one  regarding  the  origin  of  the  world  and  of  ourselves. 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  already  that  the  idea 
which  the  American  aborigines  had  of  their  Supreme 
God  included  the  notion  of  an  almighty  power  which 
had  brought  forth  all  that  exists  beside  Him,  as  Acosta 
plainly  states  :  ^  "  The  Indians  commonly  acknowledge 
a  supreme  Lord  and  author  of  all  things."  ^  In  a  letter 
of  the  Franciscan  friar,  Judocus  De  Rycke,  of  Mechlin, 
written  in  the  convent  of  Quito,  January  12,  1556,  it 
is  clearly  said  that  the  Peruvian  natives  acknowledged 
a  Creator  of  all  things,  although  their  most  ostensible 
worship  was  in  honor  of  the  sun.^ 

The  most  ancient  Peruvian  myth  points  to  the  re- 
gion of  Lake  Titicaca  as  the  scene  of  the  creative 
operations  of  a  deity  or  miracle-working  God.  This 
God  is  said  to  have  created  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  stars,  or  to  have  caused  them  to  rise  out  of  that 
lake.  He  also,  at  Tiahuanaco,  created  men  of  stone  or 
clay,  making  them  pass  under  the  earth  and  appear 
again  out  of  caves,  tree-trunks,  rocks,  or  fountains,  in 
the  different  provinces  which  were  to  be  peopled  by 
their  descendants.* 

Among  the  other  most  civilized  nation — namely,  in 
Mexico — the  truth  of  divine  Creation  was  accepted  as 
well ;  "  but,"  says  Bancroft,^  "  there  appear  to  have  been 
two  principal  schools  of  opinion  in  Anahuac,  differing 
as  to  who  was  the  immediate  creator  of  the  world. 
The  more  advanced,  ascribing  its  inspiration  to  Toltec 


l^'  >i 


*  Bk.  V.  cap.  iii.  p.  301. 
'  Cf.  Congrce  Scient.,  viii.  sec.  p 
114. 


^  Verkinderen,  bl.  111. 

*  Winsor  vol.  i.  p.  222. 

*  Vol.  iii.  p.  55. 


, ;  1, 


A.:W 


ii 


I 


376       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

sources,  seems  to  have  flourished  notably  in  Tezcuco. 
It  taught  that  all  things  had  been  made  by  one  God, 
supreme,  omnipotent,  and  invisible."  The  other  school 
sustained  a  mediate  creation,  as  we  shall  presently 
observe.' 

On  the  occasion  of  his  first  visit  to  the  emperor  of 
Mexico,  Cortes  endeavored  to  explain  to  him  the  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  ascending  to  the  origin  of  things, — the 
creation  of  the  world,  the  first  man  and  woman,  and 
so  on.  But  Montezuma  was  not  open  to  argument  or 
persuasion.  He  doubted  not  the  God  of  Cortes  was  a 
good  being ;  but  his  own  gods,  also,  were  good  to  him. 
Yet,  what  his  visitor  had  said  of  the  creation  of  the 
world  was  the  same  that  the  Mexicans  had  believed 
long  ago.^ 

The  neighbors  of  the  Mexicans,  the  Cochimis  of 
Lower  Calfornia,  amid  an  apparent  multiplicity  of 
gods,  say  there  is  in  reality  only  one,  who  created 
heaven  and  earth,  plants,  animals  and  man.'^  The 
Pericues,  also  of  Lower  California,  call  the  creator 
Niparaja,  and  say  that  the  heavens  are  his  dwelling- 
place.*  In  Upper  California  the  religious  notions  of 
several  tribes,  stripped  of  many  extravagances,  were 
remarkably  correct.  They  held  that  the  creation  of 
the  world  was  the  work  of  an  invisible,  omnipotent 
Being,  to  whom  some  gave  the  name  of  Nocumo,  and 
others  of  Chinighchinigh. 

The  "  Popol  Vuh"  or  national  book  of  the  Guate- 
malan Quiches,  a  book  much  in  vogue  among  the 
learned,  and  probably  authentic,  gives  an  extensive 
account  of  creation,  from  which  we  take,  according  to 

'  Cf.  Document  XII.  '  Gleeson,  vol.   i.   p.   137  ;    Ban- 

'  Bernal    Diaz,    Hietoria    de    la  croft,  vol.  iii.  p.  83,  quoting  Clavi- 

Conquista,  cap.  xc,  ap.    Prescott,  gero,  Storiadella  Cal.,  t.  i.  p.  139. 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p.  HCt,         *  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  83  ;  Glee- 

n.  38.  son,  vol.  i.  p.  134. 


:i±5si 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


377 


¥ 


Bancroft/  the  following  extracts :  "  And  the  heaven 
was  formed,  and  all  the  signs  thereof  set  in  their  angle 
and  alignment,  and  its  boundaries  fixed  towards  the 
four  winds  by  the  Creator  and  Former,  and  Mother 
and  Father  of  life  and  existence ;  by  whom  all  move 
and  breathe,  the  Father  and  Cherisher  of  the  peace 
of  nations  and  of  the  civilization  of  his  people ;  whose 
wisdom  had  projected  the  excellence  of  all  that  is  on 
earth,  or  in  the  lakes,  or  in  the  sea.  Behold  the  first 
word  and  the  first  discourse :  There  was  as  yet  no 
man,  nor  any  animal,  nor  bird,  nor  fish,  nor  crawfish, 
nor  any  pit,  nor  ravine,  nor  green  herb,  nor  any  tree ; 
nothing  was  but  the  firmament.  The  face  of  the  earth 
had  not  yet  appeared ;  only  the  peaceful  sea  and  all 
the  space  of  heaven.  There  was  nothing  yet  joined 
together,  nothing  that  clung  to  anything  else  ;  nothing 
that  balanced  itself,  that  made  the  least  rustling,  that 
made  a  sound  in  heaven.  There  was  nothing  that 
stood  up ;  nothing  but  the  quiet  water,  but  the  sea, 
calm  and  alone  in  its  boundaries ;  nothing  existed, 
nothing  but  immobility  and  silence,  in  the  darkness,  in 
the  night.'^  Alone  was  the  Creator,  the  Former,  the 
Dominator,  the  Feathered  Serpent :  those  that  en- 
gender, those  that  give  being,  they  are  upon  the  water 
like  a  growing  light.'  And  he  spake,  they  consulted 
together,  and  they  meditated ;  they  mingled  their  words 
and  their  opinions ;  and  the  creation  was  verily  after 
this  wise  :  Earth  !  they  said,  and  on  the  instant  it  was 
formed  ;  like  a  cloud  or  a  fog  was  its  beginning.  Then 
the  mountains  rose  over  the  water  like  great  lobsters, 
nn  instant  the  mountains  and  the  plains  were  visi- 


'  Vol.     1.  p.  44.  the  face  of   the  deep."     (Gen.   i. 

'  If  that  is  poetical,  this  is  sub-  2. ) 

lime:   "And  the  earth    was  void  '   'And  the  Spirit  of  Clod  moved 

and  empty,  and  darkness  was  n\K>u  over  the  waters."     (<ien.  i.  2.) 


ll 


m 


V::r. 


378       HIHTORY    OF    AMKRICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ble/  and  the  cypress  and  pine  came  in  sight.  The 
earth  and  its  vegetation  having  thus  appeared,'^  it  was 
peopled  with  the  various  forms  of  animal  life.*  And 
the  Makers  said  to  the  animals,  '  Speak  now  our  name, 
honor  us,  as  your  mother  and  father ;  speak,  call  on 
us,  salute  us !'  So  was  it  said  to  the  animals.  But  the 
animals  could  not  answer,  they  could  not  speak  at  all 
after  the  manner  of  men  ;  they  could  only  cluck  and 
croak,  each  murmuring  after  its  kind  in  a  different 
manner.  This  displeased  the  creators,  and  they  said 
to  the  animals,  '  Inasmuch  as  you  cannot  praise  us, 
neither  call  upon  our  names,  your  flesh  shall  be  hu- 
miliated, it  shall  be  broken  with  teeth,  ye  shall  be 
killed  and  eaten.' 

"  Again  the  gods  took  council  together ;  they  deter- 
mined to  make  man.  So  they  made  a  man  of  clay,*  and 
when  they  had  made  him,  they  saw  that  it  was  not 
good.  The  Quiche  creators  tried  to  make  better  men 
of  wood,  but  where  displeased  with  their  work  again,  and 
rained  upon  them  night  and  day  from  heaven  with  a 
thick  resin.  And  the  men  went  mad  with  terror ;  they 
tried  to  mount  upon  the  roofs,  and  the  houses  fell,  they 
tried  to  climb  the  trees,  and  the  trees  shook  them  far 
from  their  branches ;  the  bird  Xecotcovach  came  to 
tear  out  their  eyes.  Thus  were  they  all  devoted  to 
chastisement  and  destruction  save  only  a  few,  who  were 


'  "  God  also  said  :  Let  the  waters 
that  are  under  the  heaven,  be 
gathered  together  into  one  place ; 
and  let  the  dry  land  appear.  And 
it  wafl  so  done."     (Gen.  i.  9. ) 

'  "  And  he  said :  Let  the  earth 
brii^  forth  the  green  herb,  and 
snch  as  may  seed,  and  the  fruit  tree 
yielding  fruit  after  its  kind,  which 
may  have  seed  in  itself  upon  the 
earth.  And  it  was  so  done."  (Gen. 
i.  11.) 


^  "  And  God  said  :  Let  the  earth 
bring  forth  the  living  creature  in 
its  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  things 
and  beasts  of  the  earth  according 
to  their  kinds.  And  it  was  so 
done."     (Gen.  i.  24.) 

*  And  God  created  man  to  his 
own  image,  to  the  image  of  God 
he  created  him,  male  and  female 
he  created  them.  .  .  .  And  the 
Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  slime 
of  the  earth."     (Gen.  i.  27  ;  ii.  7.) 


■MM 


','r?jiillt.rtW«^V-^"- 


i?!.PJlWIW)ll-i'*iWJ 


PRIMKVAL    TRUTHM    IN    ANCIKNT    AMKRK'A.        1)79 

preserved  as  ineniorials  of  the  wooden  men  that  liad 
been,  and  these  now  exist  in  the  woods  as  little  apes. 
Once  more  are  the  gods  in  council,  and  the  Creator  and 
Former  made  four  perfect  men.  They  had  neither 
father  nor  mother,  neither  were  they  made  by  the  ordi- 
nary agents  in  the  work  of  creation  ;  but  their  coming 
into  existence  was  a  miracle  extraordinary,  wrought  by 
the  special  intervention  of  him  who  is  pre-eminently 
the  Creator.  Verily,  at  last,  were  there  found  men 
worthy  of  their  origin  and  of  their  destiny.  But  the 
gods  were  not  wholly  pleased  ;  they  had  overshot  their 
mark  ;  these  are  as  gods,  they  said  ;  they  would  make 
themselves  equal  to  us ;  lo,  they  know  all  things,  great 
and  small.  And  the  Creator  breathed  a  cloud  over  the 
pupil  of  their  eyes.  Then  the  men  slept,  and  there 
was  counsel  in  heaven,  and  women  were  made ;  and 
when  the  men  awoke  their  hearts  were  glad  because  of 
the  women."  * 

A  document  or  book  of  about  equal  value  with  the 
Popol  Vuh  is  the  Mexican  "  Chimalpopoca"  manuscript. 
From  it  we  learn  that  the  Creator  produced  his  work 
in  successive  periods :  In  the  sign  Tochtli  the  earth 
was  created,  in  the  sign  Acatl  was  made  the  firmament, 
and  in  the  sign  Tecpatl  the  animals.  Man,  it  is  added, 
was  made  and  animated  by  God  out  of  ashes  or  dust  on 
the  seventh  day,  but  finished  and  perfected  by  Quetzal- 
coatl.^ 

That  man  was  created  to  the  image  of  God  was  a  part 
of  the  Mexican  belief,  says  Kingsborough.^  Another 
point  of  coincidence  with  the  Scripture  record  is  found 
in  the  Mexican  goddess  "  Cioacoatl"  or  serpent- woman, 
whom  the  Aztecs  addressed  as  Our  Lady  and  Mother, 


» Cf.  Gen.  ii.  21 ;  iii.  5,  23 ;  vii. 
12;  viii.  6,  16. 
'  Our  Lord  Jeeus-Christ  ? 


'  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  174,  ap. 
Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  80. 


£  fi: 


■5  /! 


If' 
111. 


i'>;'^ 


'.';  ,1? 
I    I! 


380       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

the  first  goddess  who  brought  forth,  who  bequeathed 
the  sufferings  of  childbirth  to  women  as  the  tribute  of 
death  ;  by  whom  sin  came  into  the  worhl.  In  ail  this 
we  see  much  to  remind  us  of  the  mother  of  the  human 
family.' 

Similar  traditions  were  preserved  among  the  tribes 
north  of  the  Mexican  empire.  The  Papagos  of  the 
Gila  valley  tell  that  the  Great  Spirit  made  the  earth 
and  all  living  things  before  he  made  man.  He  de- 
scended from  heaven,  and,  digging  in  the  earth,  found 
clay,  such  as  the  potters  use,  which,  having  ascended 
again  into  the  sky,  he  dropped  into  the  hole  that  he 
had  dug.  Immediately  there  came  out  the  hero-god 
Montezuma,  and,  with  his  assistance  the  rest  of  the 
Indian  tribes  in  order.  Last  of  all  came  the  Apaches, 
wild  from  their  first  origin,  running  away  as  fast  as  they 
were  created.* 

The  Pimas,  a  neighboring  people,  relate  that  the 
earth  was  made  by  a  certain  Chiowotmahke.  It  ap- 
peared in  the  beginning  like  a  spider's  web,  stretching 
far  and  fragile  across  the  nothingness  that  was.  Then 
the  god  flew  over  all  lands  in  the  form  of  a  butterfly 
till  he  came  to  the  place  he  judged  fit  for  his  purpose, 
h  1  there  he  made  man.  The  Creator  took  clay  in  his 
hands  and,  mixing  it  with  the  sweat  of  his  own  body, 
kneaded  the  whole  into  a  lump  ;  then  he  blew  upon  the 
lump  till  it  was  filled  with  life  and  began  to  move,  and 
it  became  man  and  woman. 

In  Upper  California,  also,  man  was  made  of  a  handful 
of  dust  ^  by  the  invisible  omnipotent  Being.* 

Creation  was  not,  however,  considered  everywhere  a« 


•  Preecott,  Conquest  of    Mexico,  '  Gleeson,  vol.  i.   p.  120 ;    Ban- 

vol.  iii.  p.  366,  ref.  toSahagun,  lib.  i.  croft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  78,  84. 

cap.  vi.  ;lib.  vi.  cap.  xxviii.,  xxxiii.  ♦Supra,  p.   37(5.     See  Document 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  76.  XIII. 


PRIMEVAL    TRDTHB    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.        381 


being  the  immediate  work  of  the  Supreme  God.  The 
Pericues  of  Lower  California  '  ascribed  it  rather  to  one 
of  the  three  children  born  to  him  from  a  bodiless  god- 
dess. As  we  have  noticed  already,  the  greater  number 
of  the  civilized  Mexicans  granted  the  honor  of  creation 
to  Tezcatlipoca,  who  was  not  their  original  god,  while 
yet  other  secondary  gods  dis[)uted  his  claims.^ 

We  could  not  well  look  for  information  on  this  sub- 
ject to  the  more  degraded  tribes  of  eastern  parts.  The 
Indians  with  whom  we  came  in  contact  do  not  trouble 
their  minds  with  the  beginning  and  termination  of 
sublunar  things  ;  the  world  commenced  for  them  when 
their  grandfather  was  born  ;  nor  do  they  care  when  it 
may  end.  Neither  do  they,  in  the  mean  time,  trouble 
their  indolent  minds  with  thinking  of,  or  worshipping, 
its  possible  author.  This,  however,  is  not  the  case  with 
all  the  Red  Skins  of  the  United  States.  Some  tribes 
of  the  eastern  coast  and  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River  had 
pretty  fair  notions  of  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the 
earth.  Their  "  Great  Spirit,"  the  "  Michabou"  of  the 
Algonquins,  the  "  Agrescoue"  of  the  Iroquois,  was  the 
Father  of  all  existing  beings.  To  him  alone  true  wor- 
ship was  offered  by  smoking  the  sacred  calumet  towards 
the  four  points  of  the  horizon  and  the  zenith.  He  him- 
self or  his  messengers  watched  over  the  children  and 
directed  the  events  of  this  world.  Again,  it  was  to 
him,  before  all  other  deities,  that  the  Red  Skin  addressed 
his  supplication  when  he  prayed,  and  his  thanks  when 
he  had  obtained  his  requests.  I  might  here  multiply 
examples  and  quotations,  but  I  shall  confine  myself  to 
reminding  the  reader  of  the  song  of  the  Linapis  on  the 
eve  of  their  departure  for  war :  "  Oh,  poor  me,  who  am 
just  about,"  and  so  on,  as  supra,  page  251. 


Cf.  supra,  p.  376. 


'  Mendieta,  Hist.  Eccles.,  p.  81. 


Kii-^J*t»:i,Jt-..;i 


i  \ ' 


I  pill 

lir 


ll .  1^ 


882       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   C'OLUMBUH. 

We  are  further  told  by  Lescarbot  ^  that  the  nativeH  of 
the  State  of  Virginia,  and,  as  we  are  informed  by  Rafi- 
nesque,  the  ancient  tribes  of  Chili,  preserved  traditions 
regarding  the  origin  of  all  things ;  both,  however,  tes- 
tifying in  favor  of  a  mediate  creation.'^  The  Virginians 
believed  in  many  gods,  one  of  whom  was  the  principal 
god  and  had  always  been.  Willing  to  make  the  world, 
he  first  made  other  gods,  whom  he  used  as  means  and 
instruments  for  its  production  as  afterwards  for  its  gov- 
ernment. They  held,  in  particular,  that  woman  was 
made  first,  and  conceived  man  from  one  of  the  created 
gods. 

The  Chilians  admitted  that  their  Supreme  God  was 
father  or  mother  of  another  great  god,  who  was  dwell- 
ing in  the  sun  and  had  created  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  as  also  the  "  Zemis"  or  angels, — that  is,  male  and 
female  lesser  gods  worshipped  in  idols. 

Some  of  these  Zemis,  they  say,  became  bad  beings 
and  devils,  who  send  diseases,  hurricanes,  earthquakes, 
and  thunder  to  desolate  the  earth  and  mankind. 

It  is  admitted  that  some  created  deities  and  spirits 
remained  good,  as  they  were  made,  and  friendly  to 
man  ;  nay,  it  would  seem  that  the  Jewish  and  Christian 
doctrine  of  guardian  angels  was  not  a  stranger  in  Mex- 
ico and  Central  America.  Every  place  and  everything 
there  had  their  presiding  divinities ;  every  city,  every 
family,  every  individual  had  their  celestial  protectors, 
to  whom  worship  was  offered.'  According  to  many 
reports,  the  most  savage  tribes  were  specially  favored  in 
this  respect.  To  every  one  of  tlieir  shaman  or  medi- 
cine-men were  attached  a  certain  number  of  spirits  as 
familiars,  while  there  were  others  on  whom  he  might 
call  in  an  emergency.* 


'  Liv.  vi.  ch.  iv.  p.  71(>. 
■'  Knfineeque,  p.  167. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  187. 

♦  Ibid.,  p.  148. 


ti  .  i 


■„j,^i  i^^r''-m'-"-'-'-^ 


■^ 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS   IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


383 


Further  inquiry  would  still  more  clearly  prove  that 
it  was  an  almost  universal  belief  among  the  Ameri- 
can aborigines  that  there  were  two  distinct  and  an- 
tagonistic orders  of  suj^erior  beings.  The  Californian 
Cochimis  and  Pericues  asserted  that  the  Lord  who 
liveth  created  numerous  spirits  that  revolted  against 
him,  and  are,  since  tlien,  both  Ins  and  our  enemies. 
To  these  spirits  they  gave  the  appropriate  name  of 
liars  and  deceivers.  Their  business  was  to  be  ever 
on  the  alert,  so  that  when  men  departed  this  life 
they  might  seize  them,  take  them  to  their  own  abode, 
and  thus  prevent  them  from  ever  seeing  the  Lord  who 
liveth.^ 

The  latter  tribe  plainly  stated  that  in  former  time 
a  tremendous  battle  took  place  between  the  celestial 
powers.  A  certain  Bac  or  Wac  conspired  with  several 
companions  against  the  Supreme  God,  Niparaya.  In  a 
battle,  which  was  the  consequence,  Bac  was  overcome, 
driven  out  of  heaven,  and  confined,  with  his  followers, 
in  a  cave  under  the  earth.  It  is  impossible,  says 
Kingsborough,  when  reading  what  Mexican  mythol- 
ogy records  of  the  war  in  heaven,  not  to  recognize 
Scriptural  analogies.^  The  Pericues  addei'  that  all 
(juarrelling,  fighting,  and  bloodshed  were  displeasing 
to  Niparaya,  but  agreeable  to  Bac,  because  all  who 
died  guilty  of  such  acts  would  go  to  the  latter's  king- 
dom, and  become  subject  to  him.' 

The  Californians,  as  most  American  aboriginal  tribes 


'  (ilet'son,  vol.  i.  p.  1157. 

'^  Mex.  Aiitiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  401. 
quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  12. 
"And  there  waw  a  great  battle  in 
heaven ;  Michael  and  liifl  angels 
fouglit  with  the  dragon,  and  the 
dragon  fought  and  liin  angeln  ;  and 
they  prevailed  not,  neither  wa« 
their   place    found    any    more    in 


heaven.  And  that  great  dn^gon 
was  cast  out,  that  old  serpent,  who 
is  called  the  devil  and  catan,  who 
seduceth  the  whole  world  ;  and  he 
was  cast  unto  the  earth,  and  his 
angels  were  thrown  down  with 
him."     (Apoc.  xii.  7-10.) 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  i;i5 ;  cf.  Ban- 
croft, vol.  ill.  p.  169. 


1 


n 


!i' 


:-l  , 


m. 


m 


I 


M 


tpii 


ii 


1^1' 


384       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

and  the  Chinese,  trouble  themselves  but  little  in  regard 
to  the  good  God,  who  shall  do  them  no  harm ;  but 
they  are  exceedingly  afraid  of  evil  spirits,  whom  they 
know  to  be  totally  wicked,  and  whom  they  honor,  in 
the  mistaken  hope  of  preventing  their  mischief  by 
worshipful  service.' 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  Mexicans  believed  in 
the  existence  of  infernal,  wicked  spirits,  on  the  part  of 
one  who  has  seen  the  original  Aztec  manuscript  of  the 
Borgia  museum  of  Veletri.  On  one  of  its  pages  are 
represented  the  evil  genii,  with  horns  on  their  heads, 
taking  their  flight  towards  the  four  corners  of  the  earth, 
to  fulfil  the  orders  of  their  chief.  One  of  them  is 
painted  in  red,  the  color  in  Mexico  for  blood  and  blood- 
shed.^ The  Mexicans,  Clavigero  says,  believed  in  an 
evil  spirit,  the  enemy  of  the  human  race,  whose  bar- 
barous name  signified  Rational  Owl,  and  the  curate 
Bernaldez  speaks  of  the  devil  being  embroidered  on 
the  dresses  of  Columbus's  Indians  in  the  likeness  of 
an  owl.^ 

It  may  be  a  question  whether  ancient  Americans 
represented  the  devil  in  the  shape  of  a  serpent,  al- 
though the  serpent-worship,  which  was  none  but  devil- 
worship,  seems  to  have  existed  in  some  parts.  The 
Apaches  still  hold  that  every  rattlesnake  contains  the 
soul  of  a  bad  man  or  is  an  emissary  of  the  evil  spirit. 
The  Piutes  of  Nevada  have  a  demon-deity  in  the  form 
of  a  serpent  still  supposed  to  exist  in  the  waters  ot 
Pyramid  Lake.  The  wind,  when  it  sweeps  down 
among  the  nine  islands  of  the  lake,  drives  the  waters 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  158  ;  Brown- 
ell,  p.  25. 

'  Kastner,  p.  44,  quoting  Alex, 
von  Hnmboldt,  Monuments  des 
Peuplea  indigenes  de  TAnierique, 
planche  xxxvii.  fig.  7. 


'  Storia  del  Messico,  t.  ii.  p.  2  ; 
Hietoria  de  los  Reyes  CatolicoH, 
MS.,  cap.  131,  ap.  PreHcott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  58,  n. 
4. 


■^1 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


385 


into  the  most  fantastic  swirls  and  eddies,  even  when  the 
general  surface  of  the  lake  is  tolerably  placid.  This, 
the  Piutes  say,  is  the  devil-snake  causing  the  deep  to 
boil  like  a  pot ;  and  no  native  in  possession  of  his  five 
sober  wits  will  be  found  steering  towards  those  troubled 
waters  at  such  a  time.^ 

Whence  such  traditions  but  from  man's  primordial 
history  recorded  by  Moses ? ^  "It  is  impossible,"  says 
Kingsborough,  **  when  reading  what  Mexican  mythol- 
ogy records  of  the  sin  of  Yztlacoliuhqui  and  his  blind- 
ness and  nakedness,  of  the  temptation  of  Suchiquecal 
and  her  disobedience  in  gathering  roses  f'  om  a  tree,  and 
of  the  consequent  misery  and  disgrace  of  herself  and 
all  her  posterity,  not  to  recognize  scriptural  analogies 
again."  '^  Veytia  remembers  having  seen  a  Toltec  or 
an  Aztec  map  representing  a  garden  with  a  single  tree 
in  it,  round  which  was  coiled  a  serpent  with  a  human 
face !  * 

Our  first  parents  were,  in  punishment  of  their  diso- 
bedience, condemned  to  die  ;  but  they  were  also  taught 
that  death  would  not  prevail  upon  their  soul,  and  that 
even  their  dead  bodies  would  one  day  come  to  life  again 
to  partake  in  the  reward  or  in  the  chastisement  assigned 
to  the  soul,  according  to  their  deeds.  These  important 
truths  of  revelation  have  not  only  been  religiously 
preserved  by  Adam's  nearer  posterity,^  but  have  also 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  135,  ref.  to 
Charlton,  in  Hchoolcraft's  Archreol., 
vol.  V.  p.  2()0,  and  to  San  FranciHco 
Daily  Evening  Post  of  August  12, 
1872. 

*  Gen.  iii. 

'  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  p.  401. 

*  Preecott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  307,  n.  19. 

'  "  I   know  that   my   Redeemer 
liveth,  and  in  the  last  day  I  shall 
1.-25 


rise  out  of  the  earth :  and  I  shall 
be  clothed  again  with  my  skin, 
and  in  my  flesh  I  shall  see  my  God, 
whom  I  myself  shall  see,  and  my 
eyes  shall  behold,  and  not  another  : 
this  my  hope  is  laid  up  in  my 
bosom."  (Job xix.  25-27.)  "Mar- 
tha saith  to  him  :  I  know  that  he 
[the  deceased  Lazarus,  her  brother] 
shall  rise  again  in  the  resurrection 
at  the  last  day."    (St.  John  xi.  24. ) 


f 


(  ' 


r1    I    « 


i        ■; 

I  ■  ' 

1  'H  ' 

I  ■ 

386       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

endured  among  many  of  the  later  aboriginal  races  of 
our  continent. 

Only  a  few  of  the  most  savage  tribes  seem  to  have 
been  unconscious  of  their  spiritual  soul,  while  others, 
exaggerating,  believed  in  spirits  or  souls  of  even  inani- 
mate things,  such  as  snow-shoes,  bows,  and  arrows ; 
and  the  spirits  of  these,  the  Gaspesians  said,  were  to 
serve  the  soul  of  their  owner  after  his  death.^  The 
learned  Peruvians  had  a  very  correct  idea  of  the  two 
parts  of  which  man  is  composed.  They  clearly  dis- 
tinguished the  intelligent  and  immaterial  soul,  the 
"  runa,"  an  immortal  spirit,  from  the  body  made  of 
clay,  and  to  which  they  gave  the  significant  name  of 
"  alpacamasca"  or  animated  earth.^  Bastian'*  quotes 
Blocius  to  state  that  the  people  of  Chuquisaca  believed 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  and  Acosta  says,  in 
general,*  that  the  Indians  of  Peru  believed  commonly 
"  that  the  soules  lived  after  this  life,  and  that  the  good 
were  in  glorie  and  the  bad  in  paine,  so  as  there  is  little 
difficultie  to  persuade  them  to  these  articles." 

Among  the  Peruvian  Chimus  the  dead  had  a  special 
order  of  priests,  who  played  an  important  part  on  the 
solemn  day  when  the  various  tribes  came  together, 
carrying  with  them  the  dried  bones  of  their  parents. 
Covered  with  festive  garments  and  adorned  with 
feathers,  they  came  forth  blowing  into  copper  or  silver 
trumpets  and  into  large  marine  conch-shells,  ai  d  be- 
laboring tambourines  and  other  vases.  The  ceremonies 
were  appropriate,  "for  it  was,"  says  an  old  Spanish 
writer,  "  as  if  both  the  living  and  the  dead  were 
marcl'ing  to  the  Last  Judgment."^ 


'  Lfcclercq,  Nouvelle  Relation  de 
la  Gasp^sie,  ch.  xii. 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  435 ;  GarcihiHso,  Coiuentivrios, 
lib.  ii.  cap.  vii.  p.  42. 


«  Bd.  i.  S.  494,  n.  2. 

*  Ch.  vii. 

■  (Voimu,  S.  89. 


'■"^ 


PRIMEVAL    TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.        387 

It  does  not  8eem,  however,  that  these  people  had  a 
very  correct  opinion  of  the  manner  of  life  of  the  dis- 
embodied souls ;  for,  while  they  dried  and  embalmed 
the  corpses,  they  placed  food  and  drink  by  their  side 
for  the  sustenance  of  their  still  living  souls.^ 

Their  neighbors,  the  Brazilian  aborigines,  not  only 
placed  food  for  several  days  upon  the  graves  of  their 
dead,  but  also  hung  up  a  hammock  over  them,  in  the 
conviction  that  the  deceased  continued  to  eat  and  to 
sleep  as  they  had  done  on  earth.'^ 

The  immortality  of  the  human  soul  was  likewise 
admitted  in  all  Central  America  and  in  Mexico.^ 
Farther  north,  in  Upper  California,  the  natives  gener- 
ally believed  that,  when  the  dead  bodies  were  cremated, 
the  heart  was  never  consumed,  but  went  to  a  place 
destined  for  it  by  the  Great  Spirit.  By  the  heart  they 
evidently  meant  the  soul,  for  which  they  had  no  word 
in  their  language.* 

The  Cochimis,  in  particular,  supposed  their  departed 
ancestors  and  parents  to  inhabit  the  northern  regions, 
and  to  pay  them  an  annual  visit.  The  females  were 
obliged  to  procure  large  quantities  of  the  best  fruits 
and  berries  of  the  country  for  this  solemn  occasion. 
When  the  anniversary  day  had  arrived  the  male 
portion  of  the  community,  in  company  with  the  dead 
who  were  supposed  to  be  among  them,  assembled  and 
feasted  upon  the  provisions,  while  the  women  and 
children  remained  at  a  distance,  weeping  and  lament- 
ing the  death  of  their  relatives  and  friends.''  Similar, 
though  more  solemn,  feasts  were  celebrated  by  the 
civilized  nations. 


'  Bastian,  Bd.  i.  S.  47«). 
^  Maffei,  lib.  ii.  p,  75. 
'  Peschel,  Zeitalter  der  EnUU'ok- 
iiiigeu,  S.  350 ;   Short,  p.  4().'i,  rot". 


to  Kingsboroiigli,  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol. 
vi.  p.  I(i7. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  127. 

■■  Ibid.,  p.  139. 


jus '  i 

IP         ' 


n   :i  ill'    ' 


■1* 


388       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  Tlascaltecs  gave  to  the  Mexican  month  Maturity 
of  the  Fruit  the  name  of  Hueymiccailhuitl  or  Great 
Festival  of  the  Dead.  Both  in  Tlascala  and  in  other 
parts  of  the  Mexican  empire  the  priests  and  nobles 
passed  several  days  in  the  temple,  weeping  over  their 
ancestors  and  singing  their  heroic  deeds.  The  families 
of  lately  deceased  persons  assembled  upon  the  terraces 
of  their  houses  and  prayed  with  their  faces  turned 
towards  the  North,  where  the  dead  were  supposed  to 
sojourn.^ 

The  Nez-Perc^s,  the  Flathead^,  and  some  of  the 
Haidah  tribes  believed  that  the  wicked,  after  expiating 
their  crimes  by  a  longer  or  shorter  sojourn  in  the  land 
of  desolation,  were  admitted  to  the  abode  of  bliss. 
Those  who  died  a  natural  death  were  consigned  with 
the  wicked  to  the  purgatorial  department,  situated  in 
the  forest,  there  to  be  purified  before  entering  the 
happy  "Keewuck."  The  Nez-Perces  believed  in  the 
special  purgatory  of  metempsychosis, — namely,  that 
the  beavers  were  men  condemned  to  atone  their  sins 
before  they  could  resume  the  human  form.^ 

The  Miztecs  of  Oajaca  complimented,  and  presented 
addresses  to,  the  corpse  of  a  chief,  just  as  if  he  were 
alive.  Like  the  Aztecs,  they  believed  that  the  soul 
wandered  about  for  a  length  of  time  before  entering 
into  perfect  happiness,  and  visited  its  friends  on  earth 
once  a  year.^  On  the  eve  of  that  day  the  house  was 
prepared  as  for  a  festive  occasion,  a  quantity  of  choice 
food  was  spread  upon  the  table,  and  the  inmates  went 
out  with  torches  in  their  hands,  bidding  the  spirits 
enter.  They  then  returned  and  squatted  down  around 
the  table  with  crossed  hands  and  eyes  lowered  to  the 
ground ;  for  it  was  thought  that  the  spirits  would  be 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  331. 
» Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  620. 


*  Braaseur  de  Bourboui^,  Hist. 
Nat.  Civ.,  t.  iii,  p.  23. 


PRIMEVAL    TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.        389 


offended  if  they  were  gazed  upon.  In  this  attitude 
they  remained  till  morning,  praying  their  unseen  vis- 
itors to  intercede  with  the  gods  in  their  behalf,  and 
then  they  arose,  rejoiced  at  having  observed  due  respect 
for  the  departed.  The  food  which  the  dead  were  sup- 
posed to  have  rendered  sacred  by  inhaling  its  virtue, 
was  distributed  among  the  poor.' 

From  all  this  it  is  evident  enough  that  the  most  en- 
lightened American  nations  firmly  believed  in  the  in- 
tercourse of  the  dead  with  people  yet  living  on  earth. 
But  a  question  may  be  raised, — namely,  whether  the 
religious  performances  of  the  living  were  of  a  eulo- 
gistic and  entreating,  or  rather  of  a  sympathizing 
character,  and  propitiatory  for  the  poor  souls  that  were 
wandering  between  heaven  and  eari-h  before  they 
would  obtain  steady  repose  and  bliss.  The  worship- 
pers may  have  had  either  one  or  both  objects  in  view, 
as  it  is  well  known  that  part  of  the  ceremonies  con- 
sisted in  singing  the  praises  of  their  deceased  heroes 
and  great  men,  while  it  is  plainly  stated  that  an  order 
of  priests  in  Oajaca  had  charge  to  offer  expiatory  sac- 
rifices for  the  relief  of  their  ancestors'  ghosts,  as  was 
also  practised  by  most  Asiatic  nations  and  by  the  Jews 
particularly.^ 

The  American  natives,  as  a  rule,  knew  full  well  that 
the  immortal  souls  of  their  dead  were  not  all  in  the 
same  condition,  but  that  some  could  not  be  too  highly 
congratulated,  while  the  state  of  others  was  calling 
forth  commiseration  and  assistance  if  possible."' 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  622. 

''  Kastner,  pp.  97-l(X) ;  II.  Macli. 
xii.  43,  40  :  "  And  making  a  gather- 
ing, Judas  Machabee  sent  twelve 
thousand  drachma  of  silver  to  Jeni- 
salem  for  sacrifice  to  be  offered  for 
the  sins  of  the  dead,  thinking  well 


and  religiously  concerning  the  res- 
urrection. ...  It  is  therefore  a 
holy  and  wholesome  thought  to 
pray  for  the  dead,  that  they  may 
be  loosed  from  sins." 
*  Brownell,  p.  25. 


^^"■pnpiiiKssrassBggn 


\li     '^ 


■■■  t'  1 

mhM^l 

H 

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1 

B 

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1 

i 
t 

890       HIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BP^FORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  northeastern  Gaa})esians  believed  in  a  land  of 
the  hereafter,  where  the  souls  of  the  good  lived  in  a 
quiet,  beautiful  country  affording  hunting-sport  and 
abundance,  apart  from  the  souls  of  the  wicked,  that 
slept  on  dry  fir-branches  and  fed  on  the  bark  of  trees.' 

Lescarbot'^  assures  us  that  the  east- American  abo- 
rigines generally  admit  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
the  good  being,  after  the  body's  death,  in  a  place  of 
rest,  and  the  bad  suffering  in  an  inextinguishable  fire, 
in  a  dark,  deep  cave  of  the  distant  West,  which  they 
call  "  Popogusso."  Such,  he  says,  is  the  belief  of  our 
eastern  Virginians.^ 

O'Kane  Murray*  states  the  belief  of  most  eastern 
tribes  when  he  says,  "  For  all  there  was  but  one  spirit- 
land  or  future  state,  yet  all  were  not  to  be  equally 
happy  when  they  reached  that  bourne  whence  no 
traveller  returns.  Skilful  hunters  and  brave  war- 
riors went  to  the  happy  hunting-ground,  while  the 
slothful,  the  cowardly,  and  the  weak  were  doomed  to 
eat  serpents  and  ashes,  in  dreary  regions  of  mist  and 
darkness.  According  to  some  Algonquin  traditions, 
heaven  was  a  scene  of  endless  festivity,  the  ghosts 
dancing  to  the  sound  of  rattle  and  drum,  and  greeting 
with  hospitable  welcome  the  occasional  visitor  from  the 
living  world ;  for  the  spirit-land  was  not  far  off",  and 
roving  hunters  sometimes  passed  its  confines  unawares." 

In  making  inquiries  on  the  western  coast  of  our  con- 
tinent, we  will  obtain  similar  information.  The  next 
world  was  to  be  for  the  Upper  Californians  an  earthly 
paradise  where  they  would  enjoy  every  sensual  pleasure 
and  gratification.^ 

The  doctrine  of  hell,  according  to  the  most  orthodox 


*  Leclercq,  ch.  xii.  p.  308,  xni. 
^  Liv.  vii.  ch.  iv.  p.  716. 
»  CI".  Kaetner,  p.  100. 


*  Popular  History,  p.  44, 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  127. 


m^SSZ 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS   IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


391 


theology,  was  held  by  the  Mexicans/  who  also  believed 
that  the  wife  of  their  cruel  war-god  Huitzilopochtli, 
conducted  the  souls  of  warriors  who  perished  in  defence 
of  their  homes  and  of  religion  to  the  "  house  of  the 
sun,"  the  Aztec  heaven,  where  they  would  enjoy  ever- 
lasting happiness.  "The  great,  the  wise,  the  valiant, 
the  beautiful,  alas  !  where  are  they  now  ?  They  are  all 
mingled  with  the  clod  ;  and  that  which  has  befallen  them 
shall  happen  to  us  and  to  those  that  come  after  us.  Yet 
let  us  take  courage,  illustrious  nobles  and  chieftains,  true 
friends,  and  loyal  subjects ;  let  us  aspire  to  that  heaven 
where  all  is  eternal  and  corruption  cannot  enter." 
Thus  sang  the  king  of  Tezcuco  before  his  court.^ 

But  in  the  Mexican  heaven  there  were  various  de- 
grees of  happiness,  and  each  dead  man  was  appointed  to 
his  place,  according  to  his  rank  and  deserts  in  this  life. 
The  high-born  warrior  who  fell  gloriously  in  battle  did 
not  meet  on  equal  terms  the  base-born  rustic  who  died 
in  his  bed.  The  most  blissful  portion  of  the  "  house  of 
the  sun"  was  the  abode  of  the  brave ;  lower  heavens 
possessed  a  less  degree  of  splendor  and  happiness,  which 
ever  decreased  until  the  place  of  the  masses,  of  those 
who  had  lived  an  obscure  life  and  died  a  natural  death, 
was  reached.'^ 

According  to  Prescott,*  the  Mexicans  believed  in  a 
third  state  of  existence  in  the  future  life, — namely, 
they  thought  that  a  class  of  people  with  no  other  merit 
than  that  of  having  died  of  certain  diseases,  capriciously 
selected,  were  to  enjoy  a  negative  existence  of  indolent 
contentment.     Heroes  who  had  fallen  in  battle  or  died 


'  Kingsborongh,  Mex.  Antiq.,  t. 
vi.  p.  163,  seq. ,  quoted  by  Short,  p. 
463. 

'  Aspiremos  al  cielo,  que  allf  todo 
es    eterno    y    nada   se    corrouipe. 


(Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.  p.  196,  and  n.  65,  ibid.) 

"  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  511. 

*  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p. 
<)5,  ref.  to  Sahagun  and  Torque- 
niada. 


I! 


tr 


1    I 


It 


!    1; 


It. 
!;1 


392        HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUH. 

in  captivity,  defunct  princes,  and  other  perHona  of  merit 
were,  in  a  manner,  canonized  by  the  Tlascaltecs,  and 
their  statues  placed  among  the  images  of  the  gods, 
whom,  it  was  believed,  they  had  joined  to  live  in  eter- 
nal bliss.'  The  learned  king  of  Tezcuco,  of  whom  we 
have  spoken  before,^  simply  asserted  that  the  souls  of 
the  virtuous  went  up  after  death  to  the  one  true  God, 
while  the  souls  of  the  bad  went  to  another  place,  some 
most  infamous  spot  of  the  earth,  filled  with  horrible 
iiardships  and  sufferings.^ 

In  Yucatan  the  souls  of  the  good  enjoyed  happiness 
under  the  protection  of  the  gigantic  Ceiba,  while  those 
of  the  wicked  were  punished  in  hell.* 

The  respectful  behavior  of  the  Castilians  during  Holy 
Mass  made  a  profound  impression  upon  the  natives  of 
Hayti,  and  prompted  an  old  cacique  to  declare  a  por- 
tion of  their  own  religion.  He  addressed  Columbus, 
jind  said :  "  You  have  come  to  these  lands  that  you 
never  saw  before,  and  vou  have  caused  all  our  tribes  and 
nations  to  fear  and  to  tremble.  I  let  you  know,  how- 
ever, that,  according  to  what  we  believe  here,  there  are, 
for  the  next  life,  two  places  to  wdiich  the  souls  go  that 
leave  their  bodies, — one,  a  bad  place,  covered  with  dark- 
ness, prepared  for  those  who  disturb  and  maltreat  man- 
kind ;  the  other,  a  good  and  delightful  place,  where  are 
to  dwell  those  who  during  their  life  on  earth  loved  the 
peace  and  quietude  of  nations.  Therefore,  if  you  think 
that  you  have  to  die,  and  that  every  one  must  expect 
retribution  according  to  what  he  shall  have  done  here, 
you  will  not  do  harm  to  those  who  shall  not  have  done 
any  to  you."  The  admiral  remained  astonished  at  the 
wisdom  and  prudence  of  the  old  Indian.* 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  188  ;  vol.  iii. 
p.  331. 
»  Supra,   pp.  3(>4,  391. 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  197. 

*  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  373. 

*  Herrera,    dec.   i.    lib.    ii.   cap. 


liligiiiii 


PRIMEVAL   TRUTHS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


893 


The  belief  in  a  just  reward  or  punishment  after  death 
was  spread  nearly  all  over  North  and  Central  America ; 
nor  was  it  denied  in  the  southern  half  of  our  hemi- 
sphere. Lescarbot '  tells  us  that,  according  to  the  sav- 
age Brazilians,  the  souls  of  the  wicked  went  oflf  with 
"  Aignan,"  the  evil  spirit  that  tormented  them,  whilst 
the  souls  of  the  good  passed  beyond  the  mountains  to 
dance  and  feast  with  their  ancestors.  The  Peruvians, 
the  Inca  Garcilasso  says,^  believed  that  after  this  life 
there  is  another,  where  the  bad  will  be  punished  and  the 
good  rewarded.  They  divided  the  universe  into  three 
worlds, — the  world  above,  whither,  they  said,  the  good 
ascended  to  be  recompensed  for  their  virtues  ;  the  world 
where  we  live,  and,  in  its  centre,  the  world  below,  into 
which  the  wicked  were  flung.  To  illustrate  their  faith 
they  called  this  last  world  the  house  of  the  devil,  and 
accorded  divine  honors  to  some  of  their  dead,  whom 
they  declared  to  inhabit  the  world  above  in  the  company 
of  their  gods.'* 

Acosta  denies,''  and  a  few  writers  after  him,  that  the 
Incas  had  a  knowledge  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body, 
probably  because  the  Peruvians  had  no  correct  idea  of 
man's  future,  everlasting  life  ;  but  all  his  contemporaries 
agree  in  stating  that  the  future  reviviscence  of  human 
bodies  was  known  in  ancient  Peru  as  well  as  it  is  there 
to-day.  The  Incas,  says  one  of  their  descendants,^  held 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  ;  not,  indeed,  as  the  be- 
ginning of  a  life  of  glory  or  suffering,  but  of  another 
temporal  life  on  earth.  On  the  decease  of  an  Inca,  his 
palaces  were  abandoned,  all  his  treasures,  except  what 


xiv.    p.   71  ;    Coleccion    de    Docii-        '  Cf.  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  Amer- 


inentos,  t.  Ixii.,  La«  Cafias,  cap. 
xcvi.  p.  61  ;  Irving,  t.  i.  p.  480. 

'  Liv.  vii.  ch.  iv.  p.  717. 

'  CoinentJirioH,  lib.  ii.  cap.  vii.  p. 
42. 


ica,  p.  436  ;  Kastiier,  p.  104  ;  Prea- 
cott,  Conqnewt  of  Peni,  vol.  i.  p.  89. 

♦  Ch.  vii. 

*  Garcilasso  de  hi  Vega,  Conien- 
tarios,  lib.  ii.  cap.  vii.  p.  42. 


■^Il 


'If/.,  I, 


11 


i      it 


394       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

were  employed  in  hie  obHcquies,  hia  turniture  and  ap- 
parel were  suffered  to  remain  an  he  left  them,  and  his 
man.sionH,  save  one,  were  cloned  up  forever.  The  new 
Hovereign  was  to  provide  himself  with  everything  new 
for  his  royal  state.  The  reason  of  this  was  the  popular 
belief  that  the  soul  of  the  departed  monarch  would 
return  after  a  time  to  reanimate  his  body  on  earth  ;  and 
they  wished  that  he  should  find  everything  to  which  he 
had  been  used  in  life  prepared  for  his  reception.'  The 
corpse  itself  of  the  deceased  monarch  was  skilfully 
embalmed,  removed  to  the  great  temple  of  the  sun  at 
Cuzco,  and  placed  with  those  of  his  ancestors.  All 
these  bodies,  clothed  in  the  princely  attire  which  they 
had  been  accustomed  to  wear,  were  placed  on  chairs  of 
gold  opposite  the  mummies  of  their  queens,  and  sat  with 
their  heads  inclined  downward,  their  hands  placidly 
crossed  over  their  bosoms,  their  countenances  exhibit- 
ing their  natural  dusky  hue.  It  seemed  like  a  com- 
pany of  solemn  worshippers  fixed  in  devotion,  so  true 
were  the  forms  and  lineaments  to  life.^ 

The  people  took  great  care  to  gather  in  a  safe  place 
the  hair  and  nails  when  they  trimmed  their  heads  or 
fingers.  "  Several  times  have  I  asked  from  difierent 
Indians,"  Garcilasso  says,^  "  what  their  reason  was  in 
doing  this,  and  I  invariably  received  for  answer,  *  You 
know,'  they  said,  '  that  we  all  who  are  born  have  to 
live  once  more  in  the  world,  and  the  souls  have  to  rise 
from  their  graves  with  all  that  once  belonged  to  their 
bodies ;  and  in  order  that  our  souls  should  lose  no 
time  in  searching  after  their  hair  and  finger-nails, — for 


'  Acosta,  bk.  vi.  ch.  xii.  ;  Garci- 
lasso de  la  Vega,  Comentarios,  pte. 
i.  lib.  vi.  cap.  iv.,  ap.  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  32. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  p.  S'A,  ref.  to  Oiulegardo,  Relac. 


Primera,  ilS. ,  and  Garcilasso  de  la 
Vega,  Comentarios,  pte.  i.  lib.  v. 
cap.  xxix. 

*  Comentarios,    lib.   ii.   cap.   vii. 
p.  42. 


iilr 


■  I' 


PRIMEVAL    TttUTHH    IN    ANCIENT    AMEKICA.        lidi) 


on  that  day  there  will  be  much  confusion  and  hurry, 
— we  keep  them  now  together  in  one  place.' "  No 
wonder  if  the  Peruvians  were  in  the  deepest  conster- 
nation when  they  saw  the  avaricious  Spaniards  enter 
their  burial  vaults  and  caves  and,  to  rob  the  gold 
and  precious  stones  given  along  to  the  dead,  not  only 
throw  aside  the  precious  packages  of  hair,  but  c!ut  and 
tear  the  winding  sheets  and  fling  in  every  direction 
the  broken  bones  of  the  religiously  preserved  corpses. 
They  begged  with  tears  the  heartless  conquerors  to 
take  pity  on  their  beloved  dead  parents,  and  not  to 
scatter  and  mix  their  bones,  for  fear  that  they  could 
never  arise  to  life  again.' 

The  Mayas  of  Yucatp.n  believed  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  body,  says  Peter  Martyr,'^  and  in  parts  of 
Mexico,  as  in  Peru,  the  bones  of  the  dead  were  de- 
posited in  a  convenient  place,  where  the  soul  might 
easily  find  and  reassume  them.  The  opinion  under- 
lying the  various  Mexican  customs  of  preserving  the 
remains  of  the  dead,  says  Brinton,^  was,  that  a  part  of 
the  soul  or  one  of  the  souls  remained  with  the  bones, 
and  that  these  were  the  seeds  which,  planted  in  the 
earth  or  preserved  unbroken  in  safe  places,  would  in 
time  put  on  once  again  a  garb  of  flesh  and  germinate 
into  living  human  beings.  In  fact,  there  is  an  Aztec 
tradition,  according  to  which  the  first  parents  of  the 
^mmau  race  had  their  origin  in  the  buried  bone  of  a 
giant  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  inferior  gods.* 

Once  a  month,  at  the  appearance  of  the  new  moon, 
the  natives  of  Upper  California  assembled  and  danced 
as  on  a  festive  occasion,  singing  and  shouting  at  the 


'  Lescarbot,  liv.  vii.  ch.  iv.  p. 
716 ;  Horning,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv. 
p.  278 ;  Aa.  passim. 

^  Kastner,  p.  100. 

'  Myths,  p.  257. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  59,  514 ; 
cf.  Kingsborough,  Mex.  Antiq., 
t.  vi.  p.  168,  quoted  by  Short, 
p.  463. 


' 

) 

1 

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11  I 


396       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

same  time,  "  As  the  moon  dieth  and  cometh  to  life 
again,  so  we  also,  having  to  die,  will  live  again."  Did 
they  also  look  for  a  resurrection  ?  However  this  be,  it 
seems  certain  that  the  belief  of  the  resurrection  was 
not  confined  to  the  civilized  aborigines.  Lescarbot' 
assures  us  that  the  eastern  tribes  had  at  least  a  vague 
notion  of  it,  and  were  telling  stories  of  dead  persons 
who  had  come  to  life  again. 

We  know  that  upon  the  resurrection  of  the  dead 
there  is  to  follow  tlie  most  solemn  and  momentous 
drama  at  which  any  creature  shall  evei'  assist ;  but  it 
seems  that  the  American  natives  were  in  possession  of 
but  scant  or  no  information  regarding  the  last  or  uni- 
versal judgment.  And,  in  fact,  this  dogma,  although 
it  be  in  perfect  consonance  with  human  reason  and 
primordial  :."evelation,  rather  pertains  to  the  series  of 
doctrines  which  God  manifested  in  the  Christian  Dis- 
pensation. The  Mexicans,  however,  had  some  idea 
of  tlie  end  of  the  world,  which  they  thought  would 
happen  at  the  close  of  one  of  their  cycles  of  fifty-two 
years,-— namely,  on  the  day  of  "  Four  Earthcpiakes," — 
and  they  were  in  expectation  of  the  great  event."  The 
Tarascos  of  Michoacan,  according  to  Herrera,^  admitted 
ji  future  judgment  with  an  irrevocable  sentence  of  re- 
ward in  heaven  or  punishment  in  hell ;  *  and  Hornius  ' 
asserts  that  a  similar  belief  existed  in  Yucatan. 


'  Liv.  vii.  ch.  iv.  p.  71<). 
'^  Ka^tner.  p.  101  ;  Bancroft,  vol. 
iii.  p.      2. 


'  Dec.  iii.  lib.  iii.  cap.  x. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  Ml. 

*  Lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  Mrv 


PPr^ 


mm 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


THE    lUBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


The  fundamental  religions  dogmas,  tlie  vestiges  of 
wliicli  we  liave  found  among  the  natives  of  America, 
may  be  considered  as  the  common  inheritance  of  all 
mankind,  and  are  to  a  great  extent  the  conclusions  of 
sound  human  reason.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  if 
they  were  not  altogether  forgotten  by  our  aborigines ; 
but  it  is  more  remarkable  that  these  people  have  pre- 
served the  memory  of  quite  a  number  of  practices  and 
events  which,  it  is  true,  are  set  fortli  in  the  oldest 
records  of  humanity  as  belonging  to  *he  parent  stock 
of  all  nations,  but  have  no  direct  relation  with  the 
dictates  of  natural  reason  and  law.  Nay,  authors  are 
not  wanting  to  assert  that  many  customs  are  found 
among  the  American  natives  which  could  have  no 
other  origin  but  those  of  the  Jewish  nation. 

"  And  it  carue  to  pass,"  says  the  Bible,'  **  after  many 
days,  that  Cain  offered  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  gifts 
to  the  Lord.  Abel  also  offered  of  the  firstlings  of  his 
flock,  and  of  their  fat ;  and  the  Lord  had  respect  to 
Abel  and  to  his  offerings."  Such  were  also  the  sacri- 
fices offered  on  our  continent  in  more  remote  periods. 
As  long  as  monotheism  was  the  distinct  religion  in 
Peru  nothing  but  flowers,  incense,  and  animals  was 
laid  r^pon  the  altars,  tapirs  and  serpents  being  the 
principal  victims.  At  the  grand  festival  of  the  Kaymi 
or  sacred  fi  ^  a  llama  was  immolated.  Human  sacri- 
fices were  grudually  introduced  as  idolatry  developed, 


>  Gen.  iv.  3,  4. 


.S97 


398       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


•  -t: 


\V}- 


and  were  upheld  by  the  Incaa.^  The  Mexican  Chi- 
chimecs,  until  the  arrival  of  the  Aztees,  who  taught 
them  idolatry,  were  used  to  offer  to  the  sun,  their 
representative  of  the  Supreme  God,  bunches  of  grass 
and  other  innocent  oblations,  if  we  can  believe  the 
assertion  made  to  Father  de  Olmos  by  one  of  their 
oldest  chiefs.  The  Nahua  commentary  of  a  Chichimec 
historic  drawing  likewise  states  that  formerly  these 
people  butchered  no  men  in  honor  of  the  false  gods ; 
their  sacrifices  were  of  decapitated  birds  and  snakes, 
with  whose  blood  they  sprinkled  the  sod,  almost  as  it 
was  ordered  by  Almighty  God  for  the  religious  services 
of  the  Jews.^ 

Some  peaceful  rites,  inherited  from  their  predecessors, 
the  Toltecs,  continued  to  be  practised  even  by  the  cruel 
Mexicans.  Many  of  their  ceremonies,  says  Prescott, 
were  of  a  light  and  cheerful  complexion,  consisting  of 
national  songs  and  dances,  in  which  both  sexes  joined. 
Processions  were  made  by  women  and  children  crowned 
with  garlands  and  bearing  offerings  of  fruits,  ripened 
maize,  or  sweet  incense  of  copal  and  other  odoriferous 
gums,  while  the  altars  of  the  deity  were  stained  with 
no  blood  save  that  of  animals.'' 

Bancroft  relates*  that  in  the  province  of  Sonora,  on 
the  Gulf  of  California,  the  vague  feelings  of  awe  and 
reverence,  with  which  the  savage  regarded  tiie  unseen, 
unknown  power,  began  at  last  to  somewhat  lose  their 
vagueness  and  to  crystallize  into  the  recognition  of  a 
power  to  be  represented  and  symbolized  by  a  god  made 
with  hands.  The  offerings  thereto  began  to  lose  more 
and  more  their  primitive  simj^licity,  and  the  blood,  with- 


'  Natiaillac,  Prehisstoric  America, 
p.  437  ;  Congrts  Sclent.,  Anthro- 
pologic, pp.  114,  115. 

"  Ck)ngr6s  Scient.,  Philologie,  pp. 


51,  53;  Lev.  iv.  (i,  17;  v.  »;  vlil. 
.".0  ;  II.  Paral.  xxix.  24. 

"  Prescott,  C'onquest  of  M;ixico, 
vol.  ill.  p.  77. 

♦  Vol.  Hi.  p.  17S. 


wpP!f,',|»f4«,,-i 


■IPI^I 


THE    BIBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


399 


out  which,  he  sneeringly  says,  is  no  remission  of  sins, 
commenced  to  stain  the  rude  altar,  which  a  more  ar- 
cadian race  had  only  heaped  with  flowers  and  fruit. 
The  natives  of  Sonora,  says  Las  Casas,^  bring  many 
deer,  wolves,  hares,  and  birds  before  a  large  idol,  at  the 
sound  of  many  flutes  and  other  musical  instruments ; 
then,  cutting  open  the  animals  through  the  middle,  they 
take  out  their  hearts  and  hang  them  round  the  neck  of 
the  image,  wetting  it  with  the  flowing  blood.  This  was 
the  transition  from  legitimate  to  subsequent  abominable 
oblations. 

All  these  sacrifices  were  liturgical.  There  is,  conse- 
(juently,  no  need  of  remarking  that  the  public  service 
of  God,  introduced  by  Enos  ^  was  remembered  on  our 
continent. 

It  is  evident  from  Holy  Scripture  that  not  every 
nation  of  the  world,  old  already  then,  remained  faith- 
ful to  the  just  and  salutary  institution  of  Enos  ;  for  one, 
at  least,  is  most  severely  censured  because  of  its  impiety  ; 
and  when  we  compare  the  various  texts  of  Holy  Writ,'^ 
we  may  readily  conclude  that  this  nation  constituted 
the  generality  of  mankind  at  Noe's  time.  These  peo- 
ple are  called  the  giants.  Whether  the  name  be  due  to 
their  size  or  to  their  pretended  power,  to  their  pride 
and  their  gigantic  corruption,  w^e  shall  not  decide  ;  but 
we  wish  to  call  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that 
the  memory  of  this  wicked  nation  has  been  kept  fresh 
in  the  traditions  of  divers  tribes  of  the  American 
natives. 

The  Olmecs  of  Tlascala  prided  themselves  on  having 
destroyed  the  giants.*  These  Giants^j^alled-X^ukiames, 
as  Ixtlilxochitl  states,  were  survivors  of  the  great  de- 


'  Historia  Aiwlogetica,  t.  iii.  cap. 
clxviii. 
» Gen.  iv.  2«. 


'  Gen.  vi.  4  ;  Deut.  ii.  20  ;  Wisd. 
xiv.  6  ;  Eccl.  xvi.  8  ;  Barucli  iii.  26. 
*  Kastner,  p.  102. 


fl 


1.1,      ;  ■-■" 


1 1    \i 


im 


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m 


I' 


^l| 


|1!     1 

1 1  ■•    1 

400       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

struetioii  whicli  closed  the  second  age  of  the  workl. 
They  were,  according  to  Yeytia,  more  itke  Wutes  tKan 
rational  beings :  their  food  was  raw  meat  of  birds  and 
beasts,  which  they  hunted  indiscriminately,  besides  fruits 
and  wild  herbs.  Going  naked,  with  dishevelled  hair, 
they  cultivated  nothing,  but  they  knew  how  to  make 
pulque  with  which  to  inebriate  themselves.  They  were 
cruel  and  proud.  The  Olmecs,  whom  they  allowed  to 
settle  on  their  lands,  were  treated  well  enough  at  first, 
but  soon  obliged  to  serve  them  as  slaves,  to  hunt  and  to 
fish  for  them.  Thus  ill-treated,  the  Nahuas  found  their 
condition  insupportable.  Another  great  cause  of  offence 
was  that  these  giants  were  addicted  to  sodomy,  a  vice 
which  they  refused  to  abandon,  even  when  they  were 
offered  the  daughters  of  the  new-comers.  At  last  it 
was  resolved  at  a  council  of  the  Olmec  chiefs  to  free 
themselves  once  for  all  from  their  oppressors.  The 
giants  were  invited  to  a  magnificent  banquet ;  the  rich- 
est food  and  the  most  tempting  native  beverages  were 
set  before  the  guests  gathered  at  the  feast,  and,  as  a 
result  of  their  unrestrained  appetites,  they  soon  fell 
senseless  like  so  many  blocks  of  wood,  to  the  ground. 
The  Olmecs  slew  them  to  a  man.' 

The  plain  which  in  the  United  States  of  Colombia 
stretches  between  Suacha  and  Bogota  is  even  to-day 
called  by  the  natives  Iha -Giants'  Land.'^ 

Garcilasso  de  la  Vega  records  a  tradition  as  he  him- 
self heard  it  in  Peru.  They  affirm,  he  says,  in  all 
Peru,  that  certain  -giants  eame  by  sea  to  the  cape  now 
called  St.  Helen's  in  large  bar^s--4u^de  of  rushesr 
These  giants  were  so  enormously-tall  tiiatr-^rdifiary 
men  reached  no  higher  than  their  knees,  tKeir  long, 
unkempt  hair  covered  their  shoulders,  their  eyes  were 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  197. 


'  Kastner,  p.  102. 


THE    BIBLE   KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       401 


y\ 


as  big  as  saucers,  and  the  other  members  of  their  bodies 
were  of  correspondingly  colossal  proportions.  They 
were  beardless ;  some  of  them  went  naked,  and  others 
covered  with  the  skins  of  wild  beasts.  There  were  no 
women  with  them.  Having  landed  at  the  cape,  they 
established  themselves  at  a  spot  in  the  desert,  and  dug 
deep  wells  in  the  rock,  which  to  this  day  continue  to 
afford  excellent  water.  They  lived  by  rapine,  and  soon 
desolated  the  whole  country.  Their  appetites  and  glut- 
tony were  such  that,  it  is  said,  one  of  them  would  eat 
as  much  as  fifty  ordinary  persons.  At  last,  having  for 
a  long  time  tyrannized  over  the  country  and  committed 
all  manner  of  enormities,  they  were  suddenly  destroyed 
by  fire  from  heaven  and  an  angel  armed  with  a  flaming- 
sword.  As  an  eternal  monument  of  divine  vengeance, 
their  bones  remained  unconsumed,  and  may  be  seen  at 
the  present  day.^ 

The  later  Mexican  traditions  give  but  little  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  the  giant  race.  They  say,  how- 
ever, that  at  the  beginning  of  man's  history  giants 
began  to  appear  on  earth.  His  first  age  or  "sun" 
was  called  the  "  Sun  of  Water,"  and  it  was  ended  by 
a  tremendous  flood  in  which  every  living  thing  per- 
ished except,  following  some  accounts,  one  man  and 
one  woman  of  the  giant  race.  Pedro  de  los  Rios,  also, 
reports  the  legend  that  at  the  time  of  the  cataclysm 
the  country  was  inhabited  by  giants,  of  whom  some 
perished  utterly,  others  were  changed  into  fishes, 
while  seven  brothers  of  them  found  safety  by  closing 
themselve*^  into  certain  caves  in  a  mountain  called 
Tlaloc. 

No  event  in  all  the  primeval  history  of  mankind 
was  more  universally  known  by  the  American  aborigi- 


I 


ir .  n 


I.— 26 


Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  40. 


(I 


Hw';: 


I'tt 

1: 

^ 

1 

■     ' '  s    : 

i. 

402       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 

nes  than  this  disastrous  flood,  from  wliich  only  eight 
human  beings  escaped  alive. 

We  would  widely  exceed  the  limits  of  our  plan  should 
we  try  to  relate  the  interesting  traditions  of  every 
American  tribe  in  regard  to  the  universal  deluge ;  and 
should  we  allow  more  space  than  the  subject  requires, 
we  might  incur  the  censures  of  our  modern  scientists, 
who  prove  to  their  own  satisfaction  that  the  statement 
of  Genesis  is  but  a  brilliant  myth. 

We  know  that,  had  the  Mosaic  flood  been  a  particular 
or  local  cataclysm  only,  the  Scriptures  would  not  be 
at  fault  for  saying  that  "  the  waters  filled  all  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,"  ^  because  the  expression  "  the  face 
of  the  earth,"  and  others  similar  to  this,  are  often 
used  in  the  sacred  pages  in  a  figurative  rather  than 
a  grammatical  sense,  to  designate  only  the  writer's 
country.  Yet  we  cannot  help  stating  that  we  are  con- 
siderably influenced  in  forming  our  opinion  by  the 
testimony  of,  we  may  say,  every  nation  of  the  earth 
in  favor  of  the  universality  of  the  deluge.  Is  it  an  au- 
thoritative mission  of  the  fledgling,  modern  geology, — 
I  mean,  of  a  few  antagonistic  infidels  and  Christian 
liberaly  whose  learned  investigations  can,  after  all,  be 
well  compared  to  the  scratching  of  a  hen, — is  it  their 
mission  to  convince  the  nations  of  the  earth  of  their 
error  in  believing  the  Mosaic  flood  to  have  been  uni- 
versal ?  But  look,  they  say,  at  the  measurable  growth 
of  the  deltas  of  the  Nile,  the  Mississippi,  and  other 
rivers ;  at  the  uniform  retrocession  of  the  Niagara  and 
other  waterfalls ;  is  it  not  evident,  at  first  inspection, 
with  the  aid  of  the  simplest  calculation,  that  the 
natural  water-powers  of  the  earth  have  been  undis- 
turbed at  their  steady  work  many  thousands  of  centu- 


1  Gen.  vii.  18. 


m,wmm>ii>v»miim 


THE    BIBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


403 


ries  before  the  time  of  the  Mosaic  deluge  and  even 
before  the  Mosaic  creation  ?  The  objection  is  specious, 
indeed. 

In  regard  to  the  time  of  creation,  we  will  content 

ourselves  with  the  question,  How  did  modern  geology, 

or  science  at  large,  find  out  that  Almighty  God  created  a 

smooth  baby- world,  upon  which  every  accident  of  moun- 

''^Liir-ridge  and  river-bed,  and  every  knoll  and  eanyon^-. 


must  have  grown,  like  a  man's  beard  and  wrinkles, 
through  the  gradual  eiSect  of  showers  or  other  natural 
causes  ?  How  is  it  proved  that  the  ocean  was  originally 
contained  within  regular  lines,  formed  by  high  perpen- 
dicular cliffs,  over  which  the  rivers'  waters  must  have 
slowly  dropped  the  refuse  of  the  land,  to  fill  the  abyss 
at  first,  and  afterwards  invade  it  with  dry-land  deltas  ? 
Modern  science  is  remarkable,  above  all,  for  its  airy 
foundations  ;  and,  to  cut  short  any  further  discussion,  we 
will  simply  remark  that  Adam  and  Eve  were  not  cre- 
ated as  new-born  infants,  nor  were  the  trees,  from  whose 
fruit  they  were  to  subsist,  planted  in  the  seed.  Did  the 
Creator  follow  another  plan  in  producing  all  the  rest  of 
the  world  ?  or  was  it  not  rather  becoming  his  power 
and  love  that  the  first  man  should  behold  creation  as 
we  behold  it  now,  beautiful  in  its  variety,  strong  in  its 
adult  form  ?  We  acknowledge,  such  ideas  are  not  con- 
sonant with  the  slow  growth  of  ourselves  and  of  our 
works ;  but  it  is  becoming  the  omnipotent  wisdom  of 
God  that  his  works  should  remain  a  puzzle  for  our  lim- 
ited understanding.  "  He  hath  made  all  things  good 
in  their  time,  and  hath  delivered  the  world  to  their 
discussions,  although  man  cannot  find  out  the  work 
which  God  hath  made  from  the  beginning  to  the  end."  * 
Neither  should  geological  science  offer  any  serious 


'.(■ 


m 


Wtt  I 


li 


'  Eccles.  iii.  11. 


I      l!l 


A4.- 


.y 


!   ■     ! 


M'l' 


i 


it 


W:  h 


I 


It' 


404       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

objection  to  the  belief  in  the  universality  of  the  bibli- 
cal flood.  It  would,  on  the  contrary,  seem  that  such 
volumes  of  water  returning  from  off'  the  earth,  going 
and  coming,  as  are  spoken  of  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
chapters  of  Genesis,  were  the  proper  if  not  the  neces- 
sary agents  to  lay  bare  the  rocky  mountain-tops,  to 
hollow  out  a  Grand  Canyon,  to  start  a  Niagara  River, 
to  carry  off"  from  the  dry  land,  along  a  newly  dug 
river-bed,  earth  enough  to  fill  up  considerable  portions 
of  the  watery  deep  and  to  create  in  it  large  triangular 
provinces,  the  formation  of  which  by  the  slow  process  of 
ordinary  alluvium  would  require  a  time  fit  to  frighten 
the  stoutest  imagination.  Diluvial  torrents  were  re- 
•jnired  to  cut  in  the  hard  stone  the  deep  gullies  which 
allow  the  mountain  rivulets  to  speed  down  to  their  death 
in  larger  streams.  Nothing  but  diluvial  currents,  hard- 
ened to  steel  in  their  unnatural  depth,  were  capable  of 
breaking  off"  and  of  transporting  hundreds  of  miles  those 
huge  masses  which,  in  our  ignorance,  we  call  erratic 
rocks.  Nothing  but  the  wild  whirling  waters  of  the 
deluge  could  in  their  fell  swoop  have  laid  bare  immense 
forests,  to  accumulate  the  woods  into  vast  cavities,  and 
there  to  cover  them  with  improvised  strata,  until  they 
now  furnish  us  with  fuel  both  excellent  and  abundant. 
Several  more  scientific  arguments  might  here  be 
indicated  in  support  of  the  old  general  admission  of 
a  universal  deluge,  but  we  should  rather  continue  our 
historical  labor ;  and  this  we  shall,  after  proposing  an 
answer  to  the  strongest  objection  against  the  biblical 
record, — namely,  that,  had  the  Western  Continent  been 
submerged  together  with  the  Eastern,  we  would  not  be 
apt  to  find  in  America  the  brute  animal  population 
with  which  it  abounds.^     It  is  readily  admitted  that 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  29. 


im 


mmmtfrnns 


THE    BIBLK    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


405 


a  single  couple  of  any  species  would  in  a  relatively 
short  space  of  time  settle  a  whole  zone  suitable  to  its 
nature.  But  how  did  these  immigrants  from  among 
the  progeny  of  the  beasts  preserved  in  Noe's  ark  come 
over  to  America?  It  is  well  agreed,  in  the  first  place, 
that  numerous  species  could  easily  cross  Behring  Strait, 
hanging  on  their  wings  or  walking  over  the  ice.  Birds 
of  all  kinds  may  successively  have  immigrated  on  the 
masts  and  cordage  of  ancient  sailors,  as  we  have  wit- 
nessed ourselves,  on  one  of  our  transatlantic  voyages,  a 
small  b.'rd  that  followed  the  steamer  all  the  way  from  the 
English  shore  to  the  haven  of  New  York.  In  the  second 
place,  we  have  already  observed  that  our  hemisphere 
has  received  its  human  population  from  almost  every 
other  quarter  of  the  globe ;  and,  as  it  is  done  to-day, 
so  was  it  likely  of  old, — to  wit,  immigrating  people 
took  with  them  such  brutes  as  were  to  be  for  them  of 
any  benefit,  use,  or  pleasure.  But  did  they  take  along, 
one  might  ask,  worms  and  vermin  and  other  obnoxious 
creeping  or  iiying  things  ?  One  immigrant  may  have 
cared  for  an  animal  that  another  would  have  crushed 
under  foot,  and  the  fact  is  that  the  j^ost  fastidious 
sailor  cannot  prevent  taking  along  in  his  keel  quite  a 
number  of  animal  species,  which  he  would  exterminate 
if  he  could.     There  is  no  ship  without  a  mouse. 

Bancroft  expresses  thus  the  strongest  part  of  his  ob- 
jection :  "  It  is  not  to  be  supposed,"  he  says,  "  that  fero- 
cious beasts  and  venomous  reptiles  were  brought  over 
by  the  immigrants,  nor  is  it  more  probable  that  they 
swam  across  the  ocean."  We  should  not  wonder  how- 
ever, if  some  vicious  animals  found  their  way  to  our  con- 
tinent in  spite  of  those  who  took  them  along.  Even 
to-day  tarantulas  and  vipers  are  often  unwelcome  ar- 
rivals from  distant  transmarine  countries.  Nor  would 
there  be  any  great  difficulty  in  accounting   for   the 


'! 


■.iA'i' 


1   I 


j< 

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406 


IIIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUH. 


presence  of  lions  and  tigers,  of  rattlesnakes  and  boas, 
if  it  were  ascertained  that  any  of  the  ancient  American 
immigrants  were  possessed  of  the  same  spirit  of  curi- 
osity or  desire  of  learning  which  animates  our  modern 
nations,  in  both  the  Old  and  the  New  World,  and 
causes  them  to  gather,  at  great  expense,  animals  of  all 
kinds,  whether  tame  or  ferocious,  in  their  zoological 
gardens  and  menageries.  Bancroft  states'  that  such 
has  been  the  case.  "  The  Aztec  monarchs  took  sjiecial 
pleasure,"  he  says,  "  in  maintaining  zoological  collec- 
tions on  an  immense  scale.  Montezuma  II.  caused  to 
be  erected  in  the  city  of  Mexico  an  immense  edifice 
surrounded  by  extensive  gardens,  which  was  used  for 
no  other  purpose  than  to  keep  and  display  all  kinds 
of  birds  and  beasts.  One  portion  of  this  building 
consisted  of  a  large  open  court,  paved  with  stones  of 
different  colors  and  divided  into  several  compartments, 
in  which  were  kept  wild  beasts,  birds  of  prey,  and 
reptiles.  The  larger  animals  were  confined  in  low 
wooden  cages  made  of  massive  beams.  They  were  fed 
upon  the  intestines  of  human  victims  and  upon  deer, 
rabbits,  and  other  animals.  The  birds  of  prey  were 
distributed,  according  to  their  species,  in  subterranean 
chambers,  which  were  more  than  seven  feet  deep  and 
upward  of  seventeen  feet  in  length  and  breadth.  One- 
half  of  each  chamber  was  roofed  with  slabs  of  stone, 
under  which  perches  were  fixed  in  the  wall,  where  the 
birds  might  sleep  and  be  protected  from  the  rain  ;  the 
other  half  was  covered  only  with  a  wooden  grating 
which  admitted  air  and  sunlight.  F?ve  hundred  tur- 
keys were  daily  killed  to  feed  these  birds.  Alligators 
were  kept  in  ponds  walled  round  to  prevent  their 
escape,  and   serpents   in  long  cages   or  vessels  large 


n-. 


'  Vol.  ii.  p.  163. 


.^^^idtitf^ 


THE   BIBLE   KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       407 

enough  to  allow  them  to  move  about  freely.  These 
reptiles  were  also  fed  on  human  blood  and  intestines." 
Is  it  not  probable  that  some  such  ferocious  brutes  were 
set  at  liberty  by  whimsical  owners,  or  escaped  from 
their  prison  to  propagate  their  species  in  woods  and 
marshes  ? 

Moreover,  St.  Augustin  plainly  intimates  his  belief 
that,  "  as  by  God's  command  at  the  time  of  creation 
the  earth  brought  forth  the  living  creature  after  its 
kind,  so  a  similar  process  may  have  taken  place  after 
the  deluge  in  islands  too  remote  to  be  reached  by 
animals  from  the  continent."  ' 

In  making  these  remarks  we  do  not  intend  to  swell 
the  difficulties  which  scientists  unavoidably  meet  on  the 
grounds  of  history  in  regard  to  the  universally  attested 
fact  of  the  world's  submersion  ;  and,  leaving  to  others  to 
establish  the  correctness  of  the  common  interpretation 
of  the  Mosaic  record,  we  restrict  ourselves  to  the  facile 
observation  that,  if  the  deluge  did  not  cover  the  western 
hemisphere,  it  could  not  well  be  denied,  however,  that 
our  aborigines  had  their  racial  beginnings  with  such 
people  as  had  been  either  the  exceptional  survivors  of  a 
widespread  though  local  flood,  or  the  witnesses,  at  least, 
of  a  most  disastrous  inundation.  Our  plan,  moreover, 
would  not  admit  a  thorough  investigation  of  this  ques- 
tion, on  which  Christian  exegetics  are  quite  undecided, 
although  the  better  arguments  and  the  most  venerable 
authorities  favor  the  almost  universal  opinion. 

Our  digression  has  seemingly  led  us  far  away  from 
our  subject,  but  it  may  help  us  to  better  understand  the 
historic  importance  of  our  natives'  traditions  concerning 
the  deluge. 

"  No  tradition  has  been  more  widely  spread  among 

*  De  Civitate  Dii,  t.   v.  p.   987,     quest  of   Mexico,    vol.  iii.   p.  358, 
ed.  Paris,  1636,  ap.  Prescott,  Con-     n.  6. 


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Corporation 


33  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

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408       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

nations  than  that  of  a  deluge,"  says  Prescott/  "  In- 
dependently of  tradition,"  he  continues,  "  it  would,  in- 
deed, seem  to  be  naturally  suggested  by  the  interior 
structure  of  the  earth  and  by  the  elevated  places  on 
which  marine  substances  are  found  to  be  deposited. 
It  was  the  received  notion,  under  some  form  or  other, 
of  the  most  civilized  people  in  the  Old  World  and  of 
the  barbarians  in  the  New.""^  The  simple  tradition 
of  a  universal  inundation  was  preserved,  indeed,  among 
probably  the  greater  number  of  the  aborigines  of  the 
Western  World. 

Nadaillac  ^  likewise  states  that  a  general  belief  in  a 
deluge  or  universal  flood  is  widely  spread  among  the 
American  races,  and  can  hardly  be  attributed  to  Chris- 
tian teaching.  Short,*  who  dismisses  as  either  imaginary 
or  accidental  all  other  biblical  analogies  in  America, 
admits  the  "  remarkable  tradition  of  the  deluge  and  its 
literal  correspondence  in  detail  to  the  Mosaic  account." 

Resuming  again  our  exploration  journey  from  North 
to  South,  we  first  find  the  Gaspesians  of  the  North- 
east to  be  acquainted  with  the  deluge  of  Noe.^  Ac- 
cording to  their  apostle  and  historian,  they  believed 
that  their  great  god,  the  sun,  had  created  the  earth 
and  divided  it  into  several  parts  by  large  lakes,  and 
had  placed  in  each  division  a  man  and  a  woman,  who 
lived  to  a  very  old  age.  Yet  these  people  became 
wicked,  together  with  their  children,  who  killed  one 
another.     Seeing  this,  the  Sun  shed  tears  of  sorrow,  and 


'  Conquest  of    Mexico,   vol.   iii. 
p.  3tt3  and  n.  14,  ibid. 

'  The  Chaldean  and  the  Hebrew 
accounts  of  the  delu{?e  are  sub- 
stantially the  same.  Among  the 
pagan  writers,  none  approach  so 
near  to  the  Scripture  narrative  as 
jucian,  who,  in  his  account  of  the 
\ireek  traditions,  speaks  of  the  ark 


and  the  pairs  of  different  kinds  of 
animals.  (De  Dea  Syria,  sec.  12.) 
The  same  report  is  found  in  the 
Bhagawatu  Purana. 

'  Prehistoric  America,  pp.  525, 
527. 

*P.  465. 

*  Gravier,  p.  170. 


'.f!     r 


m 


THE   BIBLE   KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


409 


P, 


rain  fell  from  heaven  in  surli  a  quantity  that  the  waters 
ascended  to  the  tops  of  tlie  rocks  and  of  the  highest 
mountains.  This  flood,  which,  they  said,  was  all  over 
the  earth,  compelled  them  to  seek  safety  in  their  bark 
canoes ;  but  all  was  in  vain,  and  they  all  miserably 
perished,  a  furious  gale  tossing  and  upsetting  their  frail 
vessels.  All  were  buried  in  the  horrible  abyss  with  the 
exception,  however,  of  a  few  old  men  and  of  a  few 
women  who  had  been  the  best  and  the  most  virtuous  of 
all.  After  that  the  god  came  to  console  the  survivors 
over  the  loss  of  their  relatives  and  friends.* 

The  Thlinkeets  of  the  Northwest  relate  that  a  gen- 
eral flood  was  brought  on  by  a  man's  jealousy,  but 
many  persons  escaped  drowning  by  taking  refuge  in  a 
great  floating  building.  When  the  waters  fell,  this 
building  grounded  upon  a  rock  and  broke  in  two ;  in 
the  one  fragment  were  left  those  whose  descendants 
speak  the  Thlinkeet  language,  in  the  other  remained 
all  whose  descendants  use  another  idiom.'* 

The  Mattoles  of  northern  California  regard  Taylor 
Peak,  a  mountain  in  their  vicinity,  as  the  point  on 
which  their  forefathers  took  refuge  from  a  destructive 
inundation.^ 

Other  Californian  tribes  tell  of  a  great  flood  in  which 
all  people  perished,  or,  at  least,  of  a  time  when  the  whole 
country,  with  the  exception  of  Mount  Diablo  and  Reed 
Peak,  was  covered  with  water.  There  was  a  coyote  on 
the  peak,  the  only  living  thing  the  wide  world  over, 
and  there  was  a  single  feather  tossing  about  on  the  rip- 
pled water.  The  coyote  was  looking  at  the  feather, 
and,  even  as  it  looked,  flesh  and  bones  and  other 
feathers  came  and  joined  themselves  to  the  first,  and 

'  Chrestien  Leclercq,  p.  M.  *  Gleeeon,  vol.  i.   p.  125  ;    Ban- 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  103 ;   vol.     croft,  vol.  v.  p.  14. 
V.  p.  14. 


■I 


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H 


! 


410       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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ifl. 


became  an  eagle.  The  coyote  and  the  eagle  began  after 
a  time  to  feel  lonely,  and  they  created  other  men ;  and, 
as  these  multiplied,  the  waters  abated  till  the  dry  land 
came  to  be  much  as  it  is  now. 

The  natives  in  the  vicinity  of  Lake  Tahoe  say  that 
the  lake  was  formed  by  an  immense  wave  that  rose 
from  the  sea  and  swept  across  the  continent,  engulfing 
all  but  a  very  small  remnant.^  So  also  the  Chippewayan 
deluge  covered  all  the  earth  except  the  mountain-tops, 
upon  which  many  of  the  people  saved  themselves.'"* 

The  Papagos,  south  of  the  Gila  River,  speak  of  a 
mighty  flood  that  destroyed  all  life  on  earth  except  the 
hero-god  Montezuma,  and  his  friend  the  coyote,  which 
had  foretold  the  deluge.  The  former  had  hollowed  out 
a  boat  for  himself  and  kept  it  in  readiness  on  the  top- 
most summit  of  Santa  Rosa,  while  the  latter  had 
gnawed  down  a  great  cane  by  the  river  bank.  When 
the  waters  rose,  Montezuma  entered  his  bark  and  the 
coyote  its  hollow  cane,  stopping  up  the  end  with  a  cer- 
tain gum.  Afterwards  the  Great  Spirit,  with  Monte- 
zuma's assistance,  created  other  animals  and  other  men.^ 

Their  neighbors,  the  Pimas,  told  the  story  in  a  differ- 
ent manner, — namely,  that  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye 
there  came  a  peal  of  thunder,  and  a  green  mound  of 
water  reared  itself  over  the  plain,  where  it  seemed  to 
stand  for  a  second  ;  then,  cut  incessantly  by  the  light- 
ning, it  flung  itself  over  the  land,  and  all  perished,  with 
the  exception  of  one  man,  if,  indeed,  he  were  a  man : 
Szenkha,  the  son  of  the  Creator,  who  had  saved  himself, 
floating  on  a  ball  of  gum  or  resin.  An  eagle,  which 
had  a  bad  reputation  in  that  land,  had  also  escaped  the 
fearful  catastrophe ;  but  Szenkha,  suspecting  the  bird  of 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  88,  89. 
*  Mackenzie's  Voyages,  p.  cxviii., 
quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  14. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  76. 


THE  BIBLE   KNOWN   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       411 


th 


having  had  somethiDg  to  do  with  bringing  on  the  flood, 
made  a  ladder  on  which  he  climbed  up  to  the  eagle's 
nest  and  killed  it,  and  he  gave  life  again  to  the  dry 
bones  of  several  children  that  the  beast  had  devoured ; 
thus  repeopling  the  world.^ 

The  account  of  ^the  deluge,  as  preserved  by  the  Ta- 
rascos  of  Michoacan,  is  almost  identical  with  that  of 
Holy  Scripture.  Their  Noe,  called  Tezpi,  entered 
with  his  wife  and  children  a  large  vessel,  into  which 
he  had  introduced  animals  of  various  kinds  and  t. 
quantity  of  grain  and  seeds.  When  the  waters  began 
to  subside,  Tezpi  sent  out  a  vulture,  which  fed  upon 
the  carcasses  that  were  strewed  on  every  side,  and  it 
never  returned.  Then  Tezpi  sent  out  other  birds, 
among  which  was  a  humming-bird.  And  when  the 
earth  commenced  to  be  covered  with  a  new  verdure, 
the  humming-bird  returned  to  the  vessel,  carrying  green 
leaves,  and  then  Tezpi  landed  on  the  mountain  of 
Colhuacan.^ 

Coxcox  was  the  name  of  the  Mexican  Noe,  and  his 
wife  was  called  Xochiquetzal,  and  these  were  the  only 
persons  saved  from  the  great  flood  which  covered  all 
the  face  of  the  earth  in  the  "  Sun  of  Water."  They 
were  saved  in  the  hollow  trunk  of  an  "  ahahuete"  or 
bald  cypress.  When  the  waters  abated,  they  landed 
their  ark  on  the  peak  of  Colhuacan,  where  they  in- 
creased and  multiplied.  On  the  Aztec  paintings  pre- 
served in  the  Vatican  library  we  see  the  fortunate 
couple  floating  on  the  destructive  waves  in  a  hollow 
trunk  covered  with  green  leaves. 


I 


I 


•  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  79.  Is  not 
this  also  a  reminiscence  of  man's 
either  promised  or  accomplished 
redemption  by  the  true  8on  of  God, 
O.  L.  J.  C.  ? 

»  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  546,  ref.  to 


Herrera ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  66, 
67  ;  Kastner,  pp.  49,  50,  ref.  to  Alex, 
von  Humboldt,  Monuments  des 
Peuples  indigiines,  pp.  226,  227 ; 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
iii.  p.  364 ;  Southall,  p.  35. 


-V 


i 


I 


if 


412       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


'i-'l!.; 


>,i 


The  Tlascaltecs,  the  Zapotecs,  the  Miztecs,  and  the 
Tarascos  are  said  to  have  had  similar  pictures/ 

The  memory  of  the  deluge  was  more  definite  with 
the  Toltecs  than  with  their  successors,  the  Mexi- 
cans. It  is  found  in  their  histories  that  man  and  all 
the  earth  were  destroyed  hy  great  showers  and  by 
lightning  from  heaven,  so  that  nothing  remained ;  and 
the  most  lofty  mountains  were  covered  up  and  sub- 
merged to  the  depth  of  "  caxtolmoletltli"  or  fifteen 
cubits ;  but  men  commenced  to  multiply  again,  from 
the  few  who  escaped  destruction  in  a  "  toptlipetlacali" 
or  closed  chest.'^ 

Going  farther  south,  we  meet  with  less- defined  yet 
unmistakable  traditiony  of  the  universal  deluge.  In 
Nicaragua,  a  country  where  the  principal  language  was 
a  Mexican  dialect,  it  was  believed  that,  ages  ago,  the 
world  was  destroyed  by  a  flood,  in  which  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  perished.  Afterwards  the  gods  re- 
stocked the  earth  as  at  the  beginning.^ 

The  Indian  tribe  of  the  Achies  in  Guatemala  were, 
also,  in  possession  of  paintings  which  represented  the 
deluge ;  but  the  Spanish  friars,  in  their  inconsiderate 
zeal  to  overthrow  idolatry,  destroyed  them  all  by  fire, 
for  fear  that  those  pictures  might  be  objects  or  tools  of 
impious  worship.* 

The  Isthmians  believed  that  the  world  was  peopled 
by  a  man  who  with  his  wife  and  children  escaped  the 
great  flood.^ 

Father  Roman,  one  of  the  pioneer  missionaries  of 
the  West  Indies,  relates  the  Haytian  tradition  in  re- 
gard to  the  deluge,  which  was  known  also  in  Cuba.' 


'  Gleeeon,  vol.  i.  p.  140  ;  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p. 
363  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ill.  p.  66  ;  Kast- 
ner,  p.  49. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  20. 


'  Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  p.  75. 

*  Torqueniada,  torn.  iii.  lib.  xv. 
cap.  xlix.  p.  133. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  14. 

*  Ratinesque,  p.  175. 


1 


of 


re- 


THE    BIBLE   KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       413 

Von  Hamboldt  found  the  record  of  the  deluge 
among  the  Indians  along  the  Orinoco ;  and  the  more 
savage  Brazilian  tribes  had  still  some  idea  of  Noe  and 
of  the  flood,  but  it  \?as  so  confused  and  faint  as  to  allow 
us  the  conclusion  tl  at  since  the  great  cataclysm  they 
had  had  no  intercoi  rse  with  people  of  our  world,  says 
Maffei.^ 

Several  legends  of  the  same  kind  were  current 
among  the  various  tribes  of  Peru.  One  of  them  re- 
lated that  after  the  deluge  seven  persons  issued  from 
a  cave  where  they  had  saved  themselves ;  and  by  them 
the  earth  was  peopled  again.** 

According  to  another  Peruvian  legend,  two  brothers 
escaped  from  a  great  inundation  of  the  world  in  much 
the  same  manner,  by  ascending  a  mountain  that  floated 
upon  the  waves.  When  the  waters  retired  they  found 
themselves  alone  on  earth,  and,  having  consumed  all 
their  provisions,  they  went  down  into  the  valleys  to 
seek  after  more  food.  Whether  they  were  successful 
in  their  search  the  tradition  does  not  say ;  but,  if  not, 
their  surprise  must  have  been  agreeable  when,  on  re- 
turning to  the  hut  which  they  had  built  on  the  moun- 
tain, they  found  food  ready  prepared  for  them  by  un- 
known hands.  Curious  to  know  who  their  benefactor 
could  be,  they  took  counsel  together  and  agreed  that 
one  should  hide  himself  in  the  hut,  while  the  other 
would  go  down  to  the  valley.  The  brother  who  re- 
mained concealed  himself  carefully,  and  his  patience 
was  soon  rewarded  by  seeing  two  "  aras"  with  faces  of 
women,  who  immediately  set  about  preparing  a  meal 


»  Ed.  1590,  lib.  ii.  p.  74 ;  South- 
all,  p.  35. 

'  One  of  the  traditions  of  the 
Mexicans  deduced  their  descent, 
and  that  of  the  kindred  tribes,  in 
like  manner,  from  seven  persons 


who  came  from  as  many  caves  in 
Aztlan.  (Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  88,  n.  1,  ref.  to 
Acosta,  bk.  vi.  ch.  xix.  ;  bk.  vii. 
ch.  ii.  ;  Ondegardo,  Rel.  Prim., 
MS.) 


!• 


P'v! 


»4  'i 


;H 


K 


ili^'i 


f 

i 


414       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

of  bread  and  meats.  But  it  was  not  long  before  the 
aras  became  aware  of  the  presence  of  the  concealed 
man,  and  they  instantly  essayed  flight,  but  the  man 
seized  one  of  them,  which  afterwards  became  his  wife. 
By  her  he  had  six  children, — three  sons  and  three 
daughters, — from  whose  union  sprang  the  tribe  of  the 
Canaris,  whose  descendants  to  this  day  hold  the  ara — 
a  kind  of  bird — in  great  veneration. 

Herrera  ^  gives  a  native  tradition,  which  relates  that 
long  before  the  time  of  the  Incas  there  was  a  great 
deluge,  from  which  some  of  the  natives  escaped  by  flee- 
ing to  the  mountain-tops  ;  but  the  mountain  tribes  as- 
sert that  only  six  persons  were  saved  on  a  balsa  or  raft.'^ 

Lord  Kingsborough  thinks  that  the  Peruvians  be- 
lieved the  rainbow  to  be  a  sign  that  the  earth  would 
not  again  be  destroyed  by  water ;  and  an  anonymous 
writer  adds  that  for  them  the  rainbow  was  not  only  a 
mere  sign,  but  an  active  instrument  to  prevent  the 
recurrence  of  the  catastrophe,  through  the  pressure  of 
its  extremities  upon  the  ocean  waves  after  they  were 
swelled  by  excessive  rains.^ 

This  remarkable  analogy  with  the  Mosaic  narration 
was  also  found  to  exist  in  Upper  California,  where 
several  tribes  were  accustomed  to  express  their  belief 
in  the  pacific  disposition  of  the  deity  by  saying,  "  We 
are  not  afraid,  because  Chinighchinigh  does  not  wish 


'  Dec.  V.  lib.  iii.  cap.  vi. 

*  Still  another  Peruvian  legend 
relates  how  a  shepherd,  with  his 
family  and  flocks,  was  saved  from 
the  universal  cataclysm.  Ob- 
serving the  sad  mein  of  his  llamas, 
he  interrogated  the  stars,  which 
told  him  of  the  approaching  ca- 
lamity. None  too  soon  did  he 
flee  to  the  mountain  Ancasmarca, 
for  suddenly  the  ocean  burst  over 


the  land,  destroying  all  life.  Hap- 
pily the  mountain  of  refuge  floated 
on  the  waves  until,  after  five  days, 
the  water  subsided  and  dry  earth 
appeared  again.  In  the  course  of 
time  the  world  was  peopled  anew 
by  the  descendants  of  the  shep- 
herd of  Ancasmarca.  (Bancroft, 
vol.  V.  pp.  14-16. ) 

•  Kingsborough,     Mex.     Antiq., 
vol.  viii.  p.  25. 


THE   BIBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.        415 


to,  neither  will  he,  destroy  the  world  by  another 
submersion." ' 

If  these  last  statements  be  correct,  it  would  follow 
that  the  Californians  and  the  Peruvians  had  more 
faith  in  the  promise  of  God  ^  than  their  progenitors, 
Noe's  nearer  descendants ;  for,  the  intention  of  these  in 
projecting  their  tower  that  should  reach  heaven  was 
not  only  to  make  their  name  famous,  but  also  to  pre- 
pare a  place  of  safety  against  a  repetition  of  the  diluvial 
cataclysm.  The  undertaking  was  no  success,  but  it 
left  an  imperishable  memory  even  among  the  builders' 
descendants  in  the  transmarine  world.  The  tower  of 
Babel  is,  indeed,  clearly  remembered  by  several  abo- 
riginal nations  of  our  continent,  especially  of  Central 
America. 

IxtlilxochitP  relates  the  tradition  of  the  Toltecs, 
according  to  which  the  few  men  who  escaped  the 
deluge,*  after  multiplying  again,  built  a  "  zacuali"  or 
tower  of  great  height,  in  which  to  take  refuge  when 
the  world  should  be  destroyed  a  second  time.  After 
this  their  tongue  became  confused  and,  not  understand- 
ing one  another  any  longer,  they  went  to  different 
parts  of  the  world.  The  Toltecs,  seven  in  number, 
and  their  wives,  who  understood  one  another's  speech, 
after  crossing  great  lands  and  seas  and  undergoing 
many  hardships,  finally  arrived  in  America,  which 
they  found  to  be  a  good  land  and  fit  for  habitation. 

When  Coxcox  and  his  wife  Xochiquetzal  *  had 
landed  on  the  peak  of  Colhuacan  they  increased  and 
multiplied,  and  children  began  to  gather  about  them ; 
but  these  were  all  born  dumb.     A  dove  came,  however. 


*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  126. 

*  Cren.  ix.  11-16. 

'  Relaciones,  in   Kiiigsboruugh's 


Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  ix.  p.  321,  quoted 
by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  21. 

*  Supra,  p.  412. 

*  Supra,  p.  411. 


u 


III 

■(■■ 
t 

Ms- 

1 

^l3 

■ 

1 

i 

^8 

1 

416       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA.    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

and  gave  them  tongues,  innumerable  languages.  On 
an  ancient  hieroglyphical  map,  first  published  by  Car- 
reri,  who  was  vindicated  from  suspicion  as  to  ^is 
integrity  by  Boturini,  Clavigero,  and  von  Humboldt, 
there  is  also  depicted  a  do>'e  with  the  hieroglyphic 
emblem  of  languages,  which  it  is  distributing  to  the 
children  of  Coxcox.'  Only  fifteen  of  the  descendants 
of  Coxcox  could  at  all  understand  one  another,  and 
these  were  the  ancestors  of  the  Nahua  nitions.  Thus 
runs  the  Mexican  tradition,  which  the  learned  von 
Humboldt'^  further  relates  ivhen  he  says,  "Wodan, 
one  of  the  fifteen  ancestors  of  the  American  nations, 
was  a  grandson  of  the  venerable  old  man,^  who  with 
his  family  escaped  the  fury  of  the  flood,  and  was  one 
of  those  who,  according  to  the  Chiapan  legend,  had 
helped  in  building  the  monument  that  was  to  reach 
heaven  but  remained  unfinished  through  the  anger  of 
the  gods.  After  each  family  had  received  a  different 
language,  Teotl  ordered  Wodan  to  go  and  settle  Ana- 
huac,"  the  Mexican  table-land. 

The  Cholulans,  another  tribe  of  the  Nahua  nation, 
had  a  special  tradition,  according  to  which  one  of  the 
seven  giants  saved  in  the  caves  of  Mount  Tlaloc,* 
named  Xelhua  or  the  Architect,  went  to  Cholula  and 
began  to  build  an  artificial  mountain,  still  nearly  one 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  high,  as  a  monument  and 
memorial  of  the  Tlaloc  that  had  sheltered  him  and  his 
when  the  angry  waters  swept  thro^gh  all  the  land. 
The  bricks — for  it  was  made  of,  or  rather  cased  with, 
bricks,  like  the  Mosaic  Babel — were  manufactured  in 
Tlamanalco,  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra  de  Cocotl,  and 


'  Preecott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  364. 

'  Monumentfi  des  Peuplee  indi- 
genes, p.  148,  quoted  by  Kaatner, 
p.  58. 


'  Noe  was  six  hundred  yeara  old 
when  he  filtered  the  ark.  (Gen. 
vii.  11.) 

♦  Supra,  p.  401. 


THE   BIBLE   KNOWN    IN   ANCIENT  AMERICA.       417 

passed  to  Cholula  from  hand  to  hand  along  a  file  of 
men — whence  these  came  is  not  said — stretching  be- 
tween the  two  places.  Then  were  the  anger  and  the 
jealousy  of  the  gods  aroused,  as  the  huge  pyramid  rose 
up  steadily,  threatening  to  reach  the  clouds  and  the 
great  heaven  itself;  and  the  gods  launched  their  fire 
upon  the  builders  and  slew  many,  so  that  the  work 
was  stopped.  The  half-finished  structure,  afterwards 
dedicated  by  the  Cholulans  to  Quetzalcoatl,  with  whom 
we  will  become  acquainted  farther  on,  still  remains 
to  show  that  the  giant  had  deserved  well  his  title  of 
Architect.^ 

The  Cholulan  tradition,  as  told  by  Duran,^  differs 
somewhat  from  the  foregoing  version.  "  I  inquired," 
he  says,  "  about  the  ancient  Mexican  legends,  from  a 
native  of  Cholula  who  was  a  hundred  years  old,  and 
well  versed  in  the  antiquities  of  his  tribe.  '  Take  pen 
and  paper,'  he  answered  me,  '  because  you  could  not 
remember  all  that  I  am  to  tell  you  :  At  first,  there  was 
nothing  but  a  dark  world,  without  any  creature  in  it ; 
but  as  soon  as  light  was  made  with  the  sun  rising  in 
the  East,  gigantic  men  with  ugly  features  made  their 
appearance  and  took  possession  of  this  earth.  Desirous 
of  knowing  the  rising  and  the  setting  of  the  sun,  they 
divided  themselves  into  two  groups,  those  of  one  group 
travelling  east  on  their  search,  and  the  others  west, 
until  the  ocean  prevented  them  from  going  any  farther. 
They  returned,  therefore,  and,  unable  to  get  at  the  sun 
by  his  rising  or  sinking,  whilst,  however,  they  were 
enamoured  with  his  light  and  beauty,  they  decided  to 
build  a  tower  tall  enough  to  reach  him  in  his  course. 


'  Kaetiier,  p.  56,  quoting  Monu-  Humboldt,  Vuee  des  Cordill^ree,  t. 

mente   des    Peuples    indigenes    of  i.   p.    114;    PreBCott,   Conquest  of 

Alex  von  Humboldt,  p.  227  ;  Ban-  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  366  ;  alii, 

croft,  vol.  iii.   p.   67,  quoting  von  -      '  T.  i.  p.  6. 
I.— 27 


418       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 


1    '' 


m- 


^ 


I" 


■..-  :-■' 


They  set  out  gathering  materials,  found  clay  and  a  very 
sticky  bitumen,  and  they  hurried  on  to  erect  the  tower, 
and  raised  it  so  high  that,  they  say,  it  seemed  to  attain 
to  the  sky.  And  the  Lord  above,  annoyed  at  their  work, 
spoke  to  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  :  *  You  have  noticed 
how  those  of  the  world  have  built  a  high  and  superb 
tower  to  climb  up  hither,  after  the  beauty  and  light  of 
the  sun ;  come  and  let  us  confound  them,  for  it  is  not 
right  that  those  of  the  world,  living  in  the  flesh,  should 
mix  up  nth  us.'  The  inhabitants  of  heaven  sallied 
forth  at  once,  like  thunderbolts,  by  the  four  corners  of 
the  earth  and  demolished  the  monument.  ^*»rrified 
and  trembling,  the  giants  fled  in  every  direction. 

A  tradition  very  similar  to  the  Bible  narrative  ex- 
isted among  the  natives  of  Chiapa.  According  to 
Bishop  Nuiie/  de  la  Vega,^  they  had  a  story,  cited  as 
genuine  by  von  Humboldt,**  which  not  only  agrees  with 
the  Scripture  account  of  the  manner  in  which  Babel 
was  built,  but  also  with  that  of  the  subsequent  disper- 
sion of  mankind  and  the  confusion  of  tongues^ 

Duran  is  of  the  opinion  that  such  traditions  must  be 
remnants  of  Christian  doctrine  taught  to  the  Americans 
in  former  times. 

After  the  deluge  spoken  of  in  the  Lake  Tahoe  myth 
the  few  who  escaped  erected  a  great  tower,  the  strong 
making  the  weak  do  the  work.  This,  it  is  distinctly 
stated,  they  did  that  they  might  have  a  place  of  refuge 
in  case  of  another  flood.  But  the  Great  Spirit  was 
filled  with  anger  at  their  presumption,  and  amidst 
thunder  and  lightning  and  showers  of  molten  metal 
he  seized  the  oppressors  and  cast  them  into  a  cavern.* 


n:m 


'  Towards  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  hence  less  impor- 
tant. 

*  Vuea  des  Cordill^res,  p.  148. 


'*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  366,  n.  18. 

♦  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  89  ;  vol.  v. 
pp.  17,  18. 


THE   BIBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       419 

The  Papagos  of  northern  Mexico  tell  us  that  their 
hero-god,  Montezuma,  very  carelessly  governed  the 
post-diWiaL^ace  of  men,*  and  provoked  the  anger  of 
the  Great  Spirit,  whoT^punish  him,  pushed  back  the 
sun  to  that  remote  part  of  the  sky  which  he  now  occu- 
pies. But  Montezuma  hardened  his  heart,  and,  col- 
lecting all  the  tribes  to  aid  him,  set  about  building  a 
house  that  should  reach  up  to  heaven  itself.  It  had 
already  attained  a  great  height,  and  contained  many 
apartments  lined  with  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones, 
the  whole  of  it  threatening  soon  to  make  good  the  boast 
of  its  architect,  when  the  Great  Spirit  launched  his 
thunder  and  laid  its  glory  in  ruins.  Confounding 
times  and  persons,  the  Papagos  add  that  while  Monte- 
zuma continued  in  his  rebellion,  the  Great  Spirit  sent 
an  insect  flying  away  towards  the  East,  to  an  unknown 
land,  in  order  to  invite  the  Spaniards.  These  came, 
made  war  upon  Montezuma,  destroyed  him,  and  utterly 
dissipated  the  idea  of  his  divinity." 

We  have  noticed  before  that,  even  in  the  far-off  North, 
the  Thlinkeets  remembered  the  confusion  of  languages 
shortly  after  the  deluge.^ 

The  great  events  of  the  flood  and  of  the  dispersion 
of  nations  belong  to  the  history  of  all  mankind,  and  it 
is  but  natural  that  vestiges  of  their  history  should  be 
found  everywhere ;  but  not  a  few  writers  have  gone  so 
far  as  to  conclude  the  immigration  of  Israelites  into 
America  from  the  fact  that  several  historical  incidents 
and  customs  peculiar  to  the  chosen  people  of  God  seem 
to  have  anciently  been  known  and  practised  on  our 
continent. 

Short,*  after  Kingsborough,  establishes  numerous 
analogies  between  the  Jewish  and  the  Mexican  codes 


L 


»  Supra,  p.  410. 

*  Biincroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  77. 


»  Supra,  p.  409. 
♦P.  463. 


'm 


I' ' 


I 

1  .i  i' 

1  ' 

1 

1 

:■•;! 

'      ■  i'  ;, 

I 

if   '        i  ! 

Ir 

,1        .  ,|.: 

W^ 

i  1    ,    11 1 

Mk' 

f     '          Ijfl    i  > 

i 

|||li 

1 

m  ■]''. 

420       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

and  customs,  and  Acosta  assures  us  that  "  the  Indians 
had  an  infinite  number  of  ceremonies  and  usages  which 
reminded  of  the  ancient  law  of  Moses."  ^ 

While  Kastner  asserts "  that  circumcision  was  prac- 
tised on  the  island  of  Cozumel,  in  Yucatan,  and  all 
along  the  coast  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  as  far  as  Florida, 
Peter  Martyr  says  that  some  of  those  people,  but  not 
all,  were  circumcised,  and  a  closer  study  of  the  first 
historians  proves  that  the  Jewish  rite  was  not  known 
in  ancient  America  at  all.  Some  Indians  slit  and  bled 
their  tongues,  their  ears,  or  any  one  of  their  members 
in  honor  of  their  idols,  and  this  fact  was  likely  the 
cause  of  an  exaggerated  report.  Landa'*  and  Cogol- 
ludo*  deny  the  fact,  while  Las  Casas,  the  inquisitive 
first  bishop  of  Chiapa,  and  the  Indians  themselves 
know  nothing  of  it.^  Acosta  likewise  denies,  and  Her- 
rera  is  silent." 

The  reader  may  find  a  remembrance  of  one  of  the 
"  ten  plagues  of  Egypt"  in  the  fact  that,  when  it  hails, 
the  natives  of  the  northwestern  portion  of  Mexico  take 
a  common  reed  grass,  called  "  baguigo"  in  the  Of)ata 
language,  and  stand  it  up  at  the  doors  of  their  houses, 
believing  that  by  this  means  the  hail  will  be  induced 
to  pass  by  inoffensive.' 

Other  souvenirs  of  Jewish  history  and  rites  of  the 
Mosaic  law  seem  to  have  been  more  real,  and  to  have 
actually  existed  among  a  few  of  America's  aboriginal 
nations.  Thus  are  the  Yucatecs  said  to  have  had  a 
tradition  according  to  which  they  originally  came  from 
the  far  East,  passing  through  the  sea  which  God  had 


■  Bk.  V.  ch.  xxvii.  p.  'M\9. 

«  P.  13. 

•''  Relsicion,  p.  162. 

*  HiHt.  Yiic,  p.  191. 

*  Cf.    lUmcroft,   viil.    ii.    pp.   278, 
27»,  II.  55,  pp.  ()7*.>,  ()80  and  n. 


•  Hornins,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p.  278. 

'  AnonyinouH  "  Rudo  EiiHuyo"  of 
A.I).  1 703,  translated  in  RecordH  of 
the  American  Catholic  Historical 
Society,  vol.  v.  p.  174. 


THE    BIBLE    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


421 


made  dry  for  them.*  The  remembrance  of  this  bibli- 
cal event  was  also  utilized  in  other  cases.  Duran,'^  who 
had  received  considerable  information  in  regard  to  an 
ancient  religious  teacher,  driven  by  his  enemies  from 
one  province  of  New  Spain  to  another,  asked  one  day 
an  old  Indian  whether  he  knew  any  particulars  of  To- 
piltzin's  pilgrimages.  "  He  commenced  at  once,"  says 
the  historian,  "  to  recite  for  me  the  fourteenth  chapter 
of  Exodus,  telling  how  the  Papa — that  is,  the  apostle 
Topiltzin — had  proceeded  to  the  border  of  the  sea,  fol- 
lowed by  a  great  multitude  of  people ;  how  he  had 
struck  the  waters  with  his  staff  and  thus  opened  a  road 
for  himself  through  them ;  how  he  had  entered  them 
with  his  followers,  and  his  pursuers  had  followed  after 
him ;  but,  thereupon,  the  waters  had  fallen  back  to 
their  natural  place,  and  never  was  anything  more 
heard  of  his  enemies.  When  I  noticed  that  he  had 
read  the  same  book  which  I  had  perused  myself,  and 
knew  where  he  was  to  end  his  story,  I  begged  him  not 
to  continue  rehearsing  the  Exodus,  wim  which  he  was 
acquainted  so  well  that  he  was  also  going  to  tell  me  of 
the  snake-bites  and  of  the  miraculous  cure." 

Gleeson  relates  •'  that  the  rude  temple  of  the  great 
god  Chinighchinigh  and  its  enclosure  had  special  privi- 
leges in  keeping  with  the  respect  and  veneration  paid 
to  it  by  the  people.  Like  several  Christian  churches 
in  former  times,  he  says,  it  possessed  the  right  of  asy- 
lum. This  right  was  borrowed  from  the  old  law.* 
Whoever,  he  continues,  entered  within  its  sacred  pre- 
cincts and  sought  its  protection,  no  matter  what  crime 
he  might  have  committed,  was  from  that  moment  sup- 
posed to  be  free,  and  could   appear  among  his   own 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  22 ;  vA. 
Exod.  xiv.  21,  xeq.,  and  parallel 
scripture  texts. 


»  T.  ii.  p.  7(). 
'  Vol.  i.  p.  12.1. 
*  .Tos.  XX. 


422       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

without  any  fear  of  the  consequences  of  his  misdeed. 
Should  reference  ever  happen  to  be  made  to  the  act, 
the  aggrieved  would  merely  say,  "  You  sought  the 
protection  of  Chinighchinigh  ;  if  you  had  not  done  so, 
we  would  have  killed  you ;  he,  however,  will  chastise 
you  one  day  for  your  wickedness." 

We  may  close  this  chapter  with  the  remark  that  the 
Mexicans  celebrated  the  Jewish  feast  of  the  New  Fire,^ 
and  had  their  festivity  of  the  Remission  of  Sins  and 
the  use  of  sacred  unctions,  as  the  Jews.^ 

Authors  like  Garcia,  Lord  Kingsborough,  and  Adair 
find  traces  of  many  more  Old-Testament  rites  and  cere- 
monies among  the  natives  of  our  continent.'  But,  as 
they  wanted  arguments  to  prove  their  theory  of  the 
Jewish  origin  of  the  American  nations,  they  have  set 
forth  some  facts  and  analogies  which  are  extremely 
doubtful,  auvi  which,  as  we  noticed  already,*  would  not, 
even  when  real,  add  much  weight  to  their  preconceived 
opinion. 


'  Kastner,  p.  102 ;  cf.  II.  Mac.  i. 
The  solemnities  of  the  New  Fire, 
both  in  Mexico  and  Peni,  are  thus 
held  by  several  authors  as  being  of 
Jewish  origin.  Considering,  how- 
ever, the  great  number  of  Christian 
practices,  which  we  shall  find 
among  the  natives  of  those  coun- 
tries, we  are  mther  of  the  opinion 


that  their  feasts  of  the  New  Fire 
should  be  more  correctly  connected 
with  the  Christian  ceremonies  of 
Holy  Saturday. 

"  Hornius,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p. 
278 ;  Aa.  passim. 

'  Cf.  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p. 
78,  seq. 

*  8npra,  p.  196. 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS    KNOWN    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA. 


P- 
P- 


It  is  a  question  whether  the  Aztecs  and  other 
American  natives  received  their  customs  and  historical 
memories  analogous  to  those  of  the  Jews  from  Jewish 
immigrations  and  teachings,  or  rather  from  some  Chris- 
tian source  of  doctrine ;  for,  it  is  well  known  that  the 
Catholic  Church,  as  well  as  the  Jewish  religion,  admits 
of  sacred  unctions  in  cases  like  those  in  which  they 
were  practised  by  the  Mexican  people,  and  has,  further- 
more, always  respectfully  remembered  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  Israelitic  liturgy  ;  nay,  has  always  considered 
as  a  basis  of  her  teachings  the  primeval  truths  which 
our  aborigines  seem  to  have  preserved,  more  or  less 
intact,  from  the  time  of  original  revelation.  This  latter 
hypothesis  finds  considerable  strength  in  the  fact  that 
most  ancient  and  modern  authors  agree  in  saying  that 
the  Christian  religion  has  been  taught  on  our  conti- 
nent at  an  epoch  not  so  very  much  anterior  to  the  Co- 
lumbian discovery. 

Bastian  ^  establishes  the  latter  opinion  by  the  numer- 
ous analogies  he  points  out  between  the  religious  belief 
and  practices  of  the  Christians  and  those  of  American 
aborigines.  Von  Humboldt '^  admits  the  parity  to  be 
so  striking  as  to  have  given  the  Spanish  missionaries  a 
fine  opportunity  to  deceive  the  natives,  by  making  them 
believe  that  their  ow»-waF'none  other  than  the  Chris- 
tian religion.     "  T^JH~fl~ftipgl^A  m"i  ii'ini  iniiiiiiunHry  whn 


*  In  his  Giilturliinder  des  Alten 
Ainerika,  passim. 


*  Vues  des  Cordill^res,  t.  ii.  p. 
306. 

423 


424       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEP^ORE   COLUMBUS. 


\m 


llk:i 


has,  until  this  day,  left  any  writing  has  forgotten  to 
notice  the  evident  vestiges  of  Christianity,  which  had 
in  former  times  penetrated  even  among  the  most  savage 
tribes,"  says  Dr.  de  Mier,  commenting  on  Sahagun's 
History.^  Quite  a  number  of  ancient  writers,  such  as 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,*  Solorzano,^  Acosta,*  and  others 
are  equally  explicit  in  asserting  that  several  Christian 
tenets  and  practices  were  found  among  our  aborigines ; 
but  they  deny  their  introduction  by  Christian  teachers, 
giving,  strange  to  say,  to  the  devil  the  honor  of  spread- 
ing the  light  of  Christianity,  in  spite  of  his  hatred 
for  it. 

The  archbishop  of  San  Domingo,  Davilla  Padilla, 
a  royal  chronicler,  wrote  a  book  to  prove  that  Christian 
apostles  had  formerly  preached  in  the  West  Indies.^ 

Torquemada  is  of  the  same  opinion,  although  he 
admits  the  possibility  of  the  devil's  Christian  teaching." 
The  same  author  relates  a  particular,  the  correctness  of 
which  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt,  and  which  by  itself 
would  seem  to  afford  satisfactory  evidence  on  this  sub- 
ject. "  A  friar,"  he  says,  "  named  Diego  de  Mercado, 
a  grave  man  and  a  dignitary  of  his  Order,  one  of  the 
most  exemplary  religious  of  his  time,  told  and  wrote 
above  his  signature  that  years  ago  he  had  held  a  con- 
versation with  an  Otomi  Indian  over  seventy  years  old 
on  matters  relating  to  our  holy  faith.  The  Indian 
narrated  to  him  how,  long  ago,  the  Otomis  were  in  pos- 
session of  a  book,  handed  down  from  father  to  son  and 
guarded  by  persons  of  importance,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  explain  it.  Each  page  of  that  book  had  two  col- 
umns, and  between  these  columns  were  paintings  which 


1  Sahagun,  p.  v. 

*  Bk.  vii.  laat  oh.  p.  531. 

'  Comentarios,    lib.    ii.    cap.    vi. 

'  8aliagun,  t.  iii.  p.  vi. 

p.  41. 

•  T.  iii.  lib.  xix.  cap.  xlviii.,  xlix. 

'  De  Indiarum  Jure,  lib.  i.  cap. 

xiv.  If  73,  p.  189. 

■;'4  ■.              '•   '■ 

-1^1 


CHRI.ST    AND    HIS   CROSS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA. 


425 


represented  Christ  crucified,  whose  features  wore  the 
expression  of  sadness  ;  and  such  is  the  God  who  reigns, 
they  said.  For  the  sake  of  reverence,  they  did  not 
turn  the  leaves  with  their  hands,  but  with  a  tiny  stick 
kept  along  with  the  book  for  that  purpose.  The  friar 
having  asked  the  Indian  what  the  contents  of  the 
volume  were  and  its  teachings,  the  old  man  could  not 
give  the  details,  but  said  that,  were  it  in  existence  yet, 
it  would  be  evident  that  the  teachings  of  that  book 
and  the  preaching  of  the  friar  were  one  and  the  same. 
But  the  venerable  heirloom  had  perished  in  the  ground, 
where  its  guardians  had  buried  it  at  the  arrival  of  the 
Spaniards."^  Does  not  this  simple  recital  recall  to 
our  memory  some  one  of  those  precious  manuscripts 
jealously  guarded  in  princely  libraries,  which  the 
monks  of  the  first  Christian  centuries  patiently  wrote 
and  artistically  enriched  with  pious  illuminations? 
And  was  not  the  precious  treasure  of  the  Otomi  tribe 
brought  among  them  by  some  of  those  monks  who, 
after  copying  and  studying  in  their  convents  the  word 
of  God  and  the  liturgy  of  the  Church,  went  forth  to 
preach  Christ  crucified  and  liis  doctrine  of  salvation  to 
barbarous  nations  in  foreign  lands  ? 

Father  de  Mercado  continues,^  telling  what  further 
discoveries  he  made  in  regard  to  the  natives'  dogmatic 
theology, — namely,  that  in  some  provinces  of  New 
Spain,  as  among  the  Totonacs,  the  people  expected  the 
advent  of  the  Son  of  the  great  God  into  this  world  ; 
and  it  was  said  he  had  to  come  in  order  to  renew  all 
things ;  meaning  by  this  not  a  spiritual  renovation,  but 
an  earthly  material  improvement,  as  they  expressed  it 
by  saying  that  at  his  coming  the  loaves  of  bread  would 
be  much  larger  and  everything  else  would  grow  better 


I.-' 


•  Torqnemada,  t.  iii.  lib.  xv.  cap.         '  Torqnemada,  t.  iii.  lib.  xv.  cap. 
xlix.  p.  134  ;  cf.  Icazbalceta,  p.  'M)7.     xlix.  p.  I'M. 


il 


:S.:        M 


426       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

in  like  manner.  With  the  intention  of  hastening  the 
arrival  of  the  Son  of  God,  they  celebrated  a  religious 
feast  at  a  certain  season  of  the  year  and  sacrificed 
eighteen  persons,  men  and  women,  whom  they  en- 
couraged to  die  with  the  thought  that  they  were  to  be 
the  messengers  of  the  country  to  the  great  God,  sent  to 
ask  and  ^eg  him  that  he  would  deign  to  despatch  them 
his  Son,  vrho  would  deliver  them  from  their  misery  and 
anguis^,  and  particularly  from  that  obligation  and 
servitude  by  which  they  •^'^re  held  to  oifer  human 
sacrifices,  a  heavy  and  feai  burden  and  the  cause  of 
much  pain  and  sorrow.  No  one  shall  fail  to  nccice 
that  a  Christian  idea  underlies  the  singular  expectation 
of  the  Totonacs ;  but  we  might  doubt  whether  it  was 
the  ardent  prayer  of  the  apostles, — "  Thou  shalt  send 
forth  thy  Spirit,  and  they  shall  be  created :  and  thou 
shalt  renew  the  face  of  the  earth," — or  rather  the 
longing  expectation  of  the  Gentiles  and  of  T«:rael  to 
see  the  Saviour,^  the  true  Son  of  God. 

Almighty  God  mercifully  responded  in  his  own 
good  time  to  the  wishes  and  prayers  of  mankind  by 
the  incarnation  of  his  divine  Son  and  birth  from  the 
blessed  Virgin  Mary.  Are  there  any  vestiges  of  this 
great  event  among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  our 
hemisphere  ? 

We  did  not  in  our  researches  find  any  of  the  more 
savage  American  tribes  to  have  any  idea  of  the  Son 
of  God  made  man,  if  we  except  some  parts  of  Brazil, 
where  we  also  met  with  traces  of  the  apostle  St. 
Thomas's  preaching.  One  of  the  M  i'ui^as'  traditions 
states,  indeed,  that  a  woman  of  acc<--  plJ  '  beauty, 
who  had  never  been  wedded  to  n  in  ,.  v  birth  to 
a  most  lovely  child.     This  child,  af       .    .v.  .ng  up  to 


'  Psalm  ciii.  3() ;  Gen.  xlix.  10 ;  Jer.  xiv.  8. 


"""SV- 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.      427 

man's  estate,  worked  many  wonders,  raised  the  dead 
to  life  again,  made  the  lame  walk  and  the  blind  see. 
Finally,  having  one  day  called  together  a  great  number 
of  people,  he  ascended  into  the  air  and  was  transformed 
into  the  sun  who  enlightens  this  earth.^ 

Neither  was  this  mystery  unknown  to  the  more 
civilized  nations  of  Central  America.  We  have  men- 
tioned already  ^  the  belief  of  the  Chiapans,  according 
to  which  the  god  Bacab  was  born  of  a  virgin,  Chibi- 
rias,  who  is  now  in  heaven  with  him.  Sahagun  relates  ^ 
that  the  Tlascaltecs  designated  one  of  their  principal 
gods  by  the  name  of  '*  Camaxtle,"  which  means  the 
Naked  Lord.  He  was  to  them  what  Christ  represented 
on  the  cross  is  to  us,  for  they  asserted  that  he  was 
endowed  with  both  the  divine  and  the  human  natures, 
and  was  born  from  a  devout  and  holy  virgin  named 
"  Coatlicue,"  who  brought  him  forth  without  lesion  of 
her  virginity,  on  the  mount  Coatepec  de  Tula.  All 
this  information,  says  Sahagun,  was  jBrst  given  to  the 
Toltecs  by  Quetzal  coatl. 

This  Quetzalcoatl  is  often  confounded  with  his  di- 
vine Master,  whose  doctrine  and  precepts  he  published 
and  observed.  According  to  Motolmia's  account,  the 
Mexican  Adam  married  a  second  time,  and  had  from 
"  Chimamatl,"  his  second  wife,  an  only  son  named 
Quetzalcoatl,  who  grew  up  a  chaste  and  temperate 
man,  and  originated,  by  his  preaching  and  practice, 
the  custom  of  fasting  and  mortification.  He  never 
married  nor  knew  any  woman,  but  lived  in  continence 
and  chastity  all  his  days.  He  is  now  held  as  a  deity, 
and  an  infinite  number  of  temples  have  been  raised 
to  his  worship.  Mendieta  states  that  according  to 
other  traditions   no   mention   is  made  of  his  father, 


'  * ': 


» 'laffarel,  t.  i.  p.  428. 
'  Supra,  p.  373. 


T.  i.  p.  xxvii. 


428       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


(',:''     ' 


ii*^; 


but  only  of  his  mother,  Chimalma,  who,  as  she  was 
sweeping  the  temple  one  day,  found  a  small  green 
stone,  named  chalchiuite,  which  she  picked  up ;  and 
through  the  virtue  of  this  emerald  she  became  miracu- 
lously pregnant.^  Torquemada,  relating  still  another 
version  of  the  same  original  tradition,  says,^  "  The 
Mexicans  knew  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Angel  to  Our 
Lady,  but  expressed  it  by  a  metaphor, — namely,  that 
something  very  white,  similar  to  a  bird's  feather,  fell 
from  heaven,  and  a  virgin  bent  down,  picked  it  up,  and 
hid  it  below  her  cincture,  and  she  became  pregnant 
of  '  Huitzilopochtli,'  or  better  *  Teo-Huitz-lopochtli,' 
which  name  Borunda  explains  as  meaning  the  Lord  of 
the  thorn  or  wound  in  the  left  side.^  It  is  always  the 
same  Qeog  ex  napShov,  God  the  virgin's  son.*  •> 

The  fulfilment  of  the  expectation  of  the  nations,'' 
according  to  the  prophecy  of  Isaias,  vii.  14,  had  been 
announced  to  the  ends  of  the  world. 

Whilst  we  find  the  Indians  paying  divine  honors 
to  the  wonderful  offspring  of  a  virgin-mother,  we  have 
distinct  evidence  that  they  held  in  great  veneration 
this  mother  of  God ;  nay,  the  Mexicans  actually  wor- 
shipped her  as  a  goddess.  Wherever  they  built  a 
temple  in  honor  of  Quetzalcoatl  there  was  also  found 
a  shrine  in  honor  of  his  mother.     They  represented 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  249,  250, 
quoting  Icazbalceta,  t.  i.  p.  10 ; 
Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  480. 

"  T.  ili.  lib.  XV.  cap.  xlix.  p.  133. 

'  Cf.  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xxvii. 

*  The  reader  has,  on  p.  106,  no- 
ticed already  a  tradition  of  the 
same  kind  among  the  Pneblo  In- 
dians. A  similar  notion  in  respect 
to  the  incarnation  of  their  princi- 
|jal  deity  existed  among  the  people 
of  India  beyond  the  Ganges,  of 
China,  and  of  Thibet.     "  Budh," 


says  Milman,  according  to  a  tradi- 
tion known  in  the  West,  was  born 
of  a  virgin.  So  waa  the  Fohi  of 
China  and  the  Schakaof  of  Thibet, 
no  doubt  the  same,  whether  a 
mythic  or  a  real  personage.  The 
Jesuits  in  China,  says  Barrow, 
were  appalled  at  finding  in  the 
mythology  of  that  country  the 
counterpart  of  the  "  Virgo  Dei- 
para."  (Vol.  i.  p.  99,  n.  ;  Prescott, 
Conqu^.>^  jf  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  60,  n. 
*  Gen.  xlix.  10. 


TTTI 


CHRIST   AND    HIS   CROSS   IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      429 

her  as  a  fair  lady  with  the  bloom  of  rosy  youth  upon 
her  face,  to  indicate  that  her  spotless  virginity  suflfered 
no  harm,  when,  through  the  intervention  of  heaven, 
she  gave  birth  to  the  "  Lord  of  the  thorny  crown." 
There  she  stood  adorned  with  a  wealth  of  treasures 
almost  like  those  bestowed  on  her  son,  her  garment 
studded  with  precious  stones,  symbols  of  her  chastity, 
and  her  mantle  blue  like  the  sky  and  spangled  with 
golden  stars.  They  gave  her,  among  other  titles,  that 
of  "  Tonacayohua,''  that  is.  Lady  or  mother  of  him  who 
became  incarnate  among  us.  This  goddess,  says  Tor- 
quemada,  forbade  and  abhorred  human  sacrifices.^ 
Bartholomew  de  las  Casas  undoubtedly  indicates  the 
same  virgin-mother,  although  he  calls  her  the  "  wife  of 
the  Sun,"  when  he  writes^  that  in  the  province  of  the 
Totonacs  a  principal  goddess,  the  Sun's  wife,  was  held 
in  high  esteem  and  veneration  as  the  great  Sun  himself. 
**  The  reason  why  they  loved  and  served  her  was  that 
she  did  not  require  men  to  be  killed  for  sacrifice,  but 
rather  hated  and  prohibited  such  oblations.  She  was 
held  as  an  advocate  with  the  great  god,  for  she  told 
them,  through  her  images,  that  she  was  speaking  with 
him  and  interceding  for  them.  The  people  had  great 
confidence  in  her,  and  hoped  that,  through  her  inter- 
cession, the  Sun  would  send  down  his  child  to  free 
them  from  the  dire  slavery  in  wliicl  the  other  gods 
required  human  sacrifices  from  them, — a  horrible  taxa- 
tion which  they  did  not  grant  but  for  the  threatenings 
of  the  devil.  The  papas  and  nuns  revered  her  as  well 
as  the  common  people.  Two  priests,  who  lived  like 
monks,  served  in  her  temple  night  and  day,  and  were 
considered  as  saints  because  they  were  chaste  and  ir- 
reprehensible  ;  and  so  we  would  have  considered  them 

'  Sahagiin,  t.  iii.  p.  xiii  or  290.  Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  Casas,  Append.,  cap. 

'  Coleccion    de    Documentoe,    t.     cxxi.  p.  444. 


K 


I 


'il» 


m 


1^  ■  ii 

i 

.  i 

1 

■^■y 

' 

i-  .h 


\r      ! 


*--  ' 


Pit- 


430       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ourselves  had  it  not  been  for  their  infidelity."  We 
may  subjoin  here,  without  warranting  it,  however,  a 
statement  of  von  Humboldt,^ — to  wit,  that  the  Fran- 
ciscan friar  Mark  de  Niza  crossed  the  thirty-sixth 
parallel  in  search  of  the  bearded  king  Tartarax,  who 
was  said  to  worship  a  golden  cross  and  the  image  of  a 
woman  called  the  Lady  of  heaven. 

Both  the  mode  and  the  object  of  our  Lord's  in- 
carnation are  represented  in  tlie  rare  and  valuable 
Mej.ican  codices,  if  we  can  believe  the  learned  inter- 
preters of  their  paintings.  Quetzalcoatl  is  he  who 
was  born  of  the  virgin,  called  Chalchihuitzli,  which 
means  the  precious  stone  of  penance,  says  the  author  of 
the  "  Explanation  of  the  Codex  Telleriano-Remensis."  ^ 
Tonacatecotl,  the  Mexican  supreme  deity,  begot  Quet- 
zalcoatl, not  by  connection  with  woman,  but  by  his 
breath  alone,  when  he  sent  his  ambassador  to  the 
virgin  of  Tulla.  They  say  it  was  Quetzalcoatl  who 
effected  the  reformation  of  the  world  by  penance. 
His  father  had  created  the  world,  but  men  had  given 
themselves  up  to  vice,  on  which  account  it  liad  been 
frequently  destroyed,  but  now  had  Tonacatecotl  sent 
this  his  son  into  the  world  to  reform  it.^ 

Quetzalcoatl  undertook  the  reformation  of  the  sinful 
world  through  preaching,  by  word  and  example,  the 
virtues  of  self-denial  and  fasting,  of  chastity  and  piety, 
of  charity  towards  men,  and  of  a  pure  religion  towards 
the  one  true  God.*  For  a  time  he  succeeded  in  Tulla, 
where,  according  to  some  reports,  his  virgin-mother, 
Chimalma,  lived ;  but  in  spite  of  all  the  wondrous 
good   he  did   in   that   province,  like  Christ,  he   was 

'  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  204.  .  Codice    Mexicano,  ap.    Kingsbor- 

*  Ap.  Kingsborough,  Mex.  Antiq.,  ough,  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  v.  p.  184  ; 

vol.  V.  pp.  135,  136.  Biwtian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  554. 

'  Spi^azione  delle    Tavole    del  *  Aa.  passim. 


iA^' 


CHRIST    AND    HIM   CROHH    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.      431 


persecuted,  and  finally  driven  out  by  the  majority  of 
the  people.  Carrying  a  cross,  he  came  to  the  valley 
of  the  Zapotecs.^  We  have  noticed  before  that  the 
Chiapan  son-god,  Bacab,  who  had  been  scourged  by 
Eopuco  and  crowned  with  thorns,'^  had  also  been  the 
divine  son  of  the  Mexican  virgin  goddess.^  This  same 
son  of  Chibirias  or  Chimalraa  had  been  put  to  death 
by  crucifixion  ;  *  and  this  sacrilegious  crime  had  been 
perpetrated  on  a  Friday.  So  had  the  Chiapans  been 
informed  by  bearded  men  who  in  ancient  times  had 
taught  them  to  confess  their  sins  and  to  fast  every 
Friday  in  honor  of  the  death  of  Bacab.^ 

Another  circumstance  of  our  Saviour's  death  seems 
to  be  remembered  in  Mexico,  for  it  is  related  in  its 
traditions  that,  at  the  disappearance  of  Topiltzin  or 
Quetzalcoatl,  both  sun  and  moon  were  covered  in  dark- 
ness, while  a  single  star  appeared  in  the  heavens.** 

Our  Lord's  resurrection  is  plainly  brought  to  mind 
by  the  statement  of  the  venerable  Chiapan  chief,  who 
asserted  that  the  crucified  Bacab  remained  dead  three 
days  and  on  the  third  day  came  to  life  again.^ 

Before  going  farther,  we  may  remark  that  it  is  par- 
ticularly through  his  death  and  resurrection  that  Christ 
conquered  death  and  the  powers  of  hell ;  and  it  is  of  in- 
terest to  recite  in  this  connection  the  curious  tradition  of 
the  Guatemalan  natives.  Bishop  Las  Casas  is  author- 
ity for  it.^  "  It  is  a  common  opinion  in  the  kingdom 
of  Guatemala,"  he  says,  "  that,  at  a  distance  of  thirty 


»  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  528. 
»  Supra,  p.  373. 
»  Supra,  p.  428. 

*  Supra,  p.  373  ;  Kingaborough, 
Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vi.  pp.  507,  508i 
quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  27, 
n.  62. 

*  Coleccion    de    Documentos,    t. 


Ixvi.  ch.  cxxiii.  p.  453,  B.  de  laa 
Casas  ;  Sahagun,  p.  iii. 

•  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  487. 

'  Supra,  p.  373. 

*•  Colleccion  de  Documentos  in- 
editos,  t.  Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  Casas, 
p.  45«. 


■  b 


432       HI8TORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


II  ltd 


i< 


Wu 


rn-'f 


leagues  from  its  capital,  in  the  province  of  Ultlatlan, 
now  Vera  Paz,  there  was  born  a  god,  Exbalancjuen  by 
name,  who  set  out  to  make  war  upon  the  powers  of 
hell  and  fought  against  its  inliabitants,  whose  king  he 
made  a  prisoner,  together  with  a  great  host  of  his 
array.  After  his  victory  he  returned  to  the  earth  with 
his  spoils,  but  the  king  of  hell  asked  him  not  to  be 
ejected  from  his  dwelling,  alleging  that  already  now 
it  was  three  or  four  degrees  belotv  the  region  of  light. 
For  answer  Exbalanquen  gave  him,  in  his  anger,  a 
dreadful  kick,  telling  him  to  go  back  and  to  take  along 
all  that  would  be  dry,  rotten,  and  stinking  on  earth." 
The  tradition  adds  the  unexpected  circumstance  that 
when,  after  his  victory,  the  god  went  back  to  Vera 
Paz,  the  people  refused  to  receive  liim  with  the  solem- 
nities and  songs  that  he  required ;  in  consequence  of 
which  he  went  to  another  kingdom,  where  he  was 
received  according  to  his  wishes.  St.  John  remarks 
in  like  manner,  "  He  [Christ]  came  unto  his  own,  and 
his  own  received  him  not ;"  ^  and  the  Gentiles  became 
the  heirs  of  the  promises  made  to  the  people  of  Israel. 
To  be  candid,  we  must  acknowledge  that  the  tradition 
ends  with  a  particular  which  would  seem  to  subvert 
our  insinuated  analogies  with  Christian  history.  It 
is,  namely,  said  that  Exbalanquen  introduced  human 
sacrifices  into  Guatemala.'^ 

.  Kesuming  the  ancient  American  history  of  our  Sa- 
viour where  we  left  it,  we  should  next  inquire  as  to  the 
reminiscences  of  his  ascension  to  heaven.     Such  souve- 


14 


r-'  HI 


>  St.  Johni.  11. 

'  The  learned  editor  of  the 
American  EcclesiaMical  Review,  Jan- 
uary, 1898,  p.  60,  makes  here  an 
interesting  remark:  "Possibly," 
he  says,  "a  misconception  of  the 
Eucharistic  institution    may   have 


given  rise  to  the  notion,  and  con- 
nected the  eating  of  the  flesh  of 
Christ  with  a  habit  of  their  de- 
praved nature.  The  Romans  held, 
as  we  know,  similar  notions  about 
the  earlv  Christians." 


CHRIST   AND    HI8   CROM8    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       433 

nirs  are  actually  found  in  several  parts.  The  supreme 
god  of  Upper  California,  Chinighchinigh,  was  believed 
to  be  an  immortal  spirit,  and  yet  underwent  the  penalty 
of  death.  When  asked  where  he  desired  to  be  buried, 
his  answer  was  that  he  would  go  up  into  heaven,  where 
he  would  take  an  account  of  the  actions  of  all  men,  and 
reward  or  punish  them  accordingly.  "  When  I  die  I 
shall  ascend  above  the  stars,"  he  said,  **  where  I  shall 
always  behold  you ;  and  to  those  who  have  kept  my 
commandments  I  shall  give  all  they  ask  of  me ;  but 
those  who  obey  not  my  teachings  nor  believe  them  I 
shall  punish  severely.  I  will  send  unto  them  bears  to 
bite  and  serpents  to  sting ;  they  shall  be  without  food, 
and  have  diseases  that  they  may  die."  ^ 

When  their  religious  teacher  and  reformer  Wixipe- 
cocha  left  the  Miztecs,  he  first  went  off  to  the  moun- 
tains, on  the  summit  of  which  he  appeared  to  them  for 
a  few  moments,  and  then  vanished  on  his  way  to  lands 
unknown.''  The  hero-god  of  Yucatan,  Cukulcan,  who 
was  probably  one  and  the  same  personage  with  Wixipe- 
cocha,  Topiltzin,  and  Quetzalcoatl,  left  Cholula  under 
different  circumstance  s,  which  are  not,  however,  without 
some  analogy  to  those  of  the  ascension  of  our  Lord. 
Cukulcan  told  his  priests  that  the  mysterious  Tlapallan 
was  his  destination ;  and,  turning  towards  the  East, 
proceeded  on  his  way  until  he  reached  the  sea  at  a 
point  a  few  miles  south  of  Vera  Cruz.  Here  he  be- 
stowed his  blessing  upon  four  young  men  who  accom- 
panied him  from  Cholula,  and  commanded  them  to  go 
back  to  their  homes  bearing  the  promise  to  his  people 
that  he  would  return  to  them  and  again  set  up  his  king- 
dom among  them.     Then  embarking  in  a  canoe  made 


^  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  124 ;   ref.  to 
Boscana,  p.  256. 
I— 28 


»  Baatiaii,  Bd.  ii.  S.  628. 


fW^: 


W 


1  '■ ' 

1^  i 

434       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

of  serpent  skins,  or  on  a  raft,  according  to  Saliagun, 
he  sailed  away  towards  the  East.^  So  also  departed 
in  an  easterly  direction  the  creator  of  the  Mojave  tribe, 
Matevil,  who  was  wont  in  time  past  to  dwell  with  them  ; 
and  in  like  manner  was  he  in  latter  days  to  return 
again,  to  prosper  and  live  with  his  people  forever.'' 

The  last  great  event  of  the  history  of  Our  Lord  and 
the  blissful  result  of  his  passage  through  this  world  are 
beautifully  told  in  the  Algonquin-Ojibway  legend  called 
«'  The  Sea-Gull :" 


"Now  Keezis  [Josus] — the  (rrciit  life-givor, 
From  liiH  wigwam  in  Waubii-nong'' 
RoHo  and  wrapped  his  shining  bhinkct 
Round  His  giant  form  and  started, 
Westward  started  on  his  journey, 
Striding  on  from  hill  to  hill-top. 
Upward  then  he  climbed  the  ether, 
On  the  bridge  of  stars  he  travelled, 
Westward  travelled  on  his  journey 
To  the  far-otf  Sunset  Mountains, 
To  the  gloomy  land  of  shadows. 

"  On  the  lodge-poles  sang  the  robin. 
And  the  brooks  began  to  murmur ; 
On  the  south-wind  floated  fragrance 
Of  the  early  buds  and  blossoms. 
From  old  P^boan's^  eyes  the  tear-drops 
Down  his  pale  face  ran  in  streamlets ; 
Ticss  and  less  he  grew  in  stature. 
Till  he  melted  down  to  nothing."  * 


>  Short,  p.  271. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  175. 

'  /.<>.,  the  White  Land  or  the  land 
of  white  people,  Europe,  the  Esflt-— 
to  which  probably  some  of  the  Al- 
gonquin nation  had  sailed.  (See 
Supra,  ch.  vii. ) 

*  The  old  man,  or  Winter. 


°  Compjire  with  "The  Orient  from 
on  high  hath  visited  us :  to  en- 
lighten them  tliat  sit  in  darkness 
and  in  the  shadow  of  death." — St. 
Luke  i.  78,  70.  (Mrs.  Cordenio  A. 
Severance,  Indian  Legends  of  Min- 
nesota, pp.  152,  153.) 


vBi 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS    IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA.       435 

The  tradition  of  the  Pericues  of  Lower  California 
related  the  whole  history  of  Christ  in  a  few  words : 
Niparaya  was  their  Great  Spirit.  He  had  a  spouse, 
and  by  her,  altliough  they  never  cohabited,  three  sons  : 
one,  who  was  called  Cuajnp  or  True  Man,  was  born  on 
earth  in  the  mountains  of  Acaraqui,  and  lived  a  long 
time  among  men  in  order  to  instruct  them.  He  was 
most  powerful  and  had  a  great  number  of  followers, 
having  descended  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth  and 
brought  thorn  thence.  But  these  ungrateful  beings, 
despising  his  benefits,  formed  a  conspiracy  against  liim, 
put  a  crown  of  thorns  upon  his  head,  and  slew  him. 
Though  dead,  his  body  still  remains  incorrupt  and 
extremely  beautiful ;  he  does  not  speak,  but  he  has  a 
bird  through  which  he  communicates.' 

It  is  not  our  intention  to  exaggerate  the  importance 
of  these  coincidences  of  ancient  American  traditions 
with  the  history  of  our  Saviour ;  but  their  Christian 
origin  and  Christian  meaning  could  hardly  be  called  in 
question,  if  we  should  happen  to  find,  alongside  with 
them,  among  the  same  aborigines,  such  emblems,  doc- 
trines, and  practices  as  evidently  are  Christian  exclu- 
sively. Who  will  deny  that,  if  the  cross,  the  peculiar 
symbol  of  Christianity,  should  be  found  in  Yucatan,  it 
would  stamp  as  Christian  the  tradition  of  its  inhabi- 
tants, according  to  which  they  believed  that  their  son- 
god,  born  of  a  virgin,  died  crucified  ?  ^ 

Let  it  be  stated  at  once  that  crosses,  sacred  emblems 
of  our  holy  religion,^  were  met  with  by  the  Spanish 
and  other  discoverers  not  only  in  Yucatan,  but  also  in 
several  other  parts  of  America. 

Columbus  himself,  as  early  as  the  16th  of  Novem- 


*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  Ki6. 
» Supra,  p.  373. 


*  By   and  by  we  will  speak  of 
other  signitications  of  the  cross. 


k 


436       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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ber,  1492,  found  a  beautiful  cross  on  one  of  the  Bahama 
Islands,  in  the  Sea  of  Our  Lady,  as  he  named  that  part 
of  the  ocean/ 

When,  in  the  year  1518,  Grijalva  landed  on  the 
island  of  Cozumel,  he  and  his  companions  were  greatly 
puzzled  at  the  sight  of  numerous  crosses  which  they 
met  both  on  the  inside  and  the  outside  of  the  temples. 
At  one  place,  in  particular,  they  found  a  temple  in  the 
shape  of  a  square  tower,  which  contained  the  idols ; 
attached  to  it  was  a  small  building  where  the  instru- 
ments for  the  sacrifices  were  kept,  and  farther  yet 
a  court-yard  enclosed  with  a  crenellated  whitewashed 
wall.  In  the  centre  of  this  yard  stood  a  cross  of  lime- 
stone nine  feet  high,  around  which  the  natives  at  times 
walked  in  procession  with  great  devotion  and  respect, 
begging  for  rain.'^  De  las  Casas  adds  ^  that  the  cross 
was  the  rain-god  in  Cozumel,  to  whom  they  sacri- 
ficed quails  in  seasons  of  drought.  When  asked  how 
they  had  come  in  possession  of  that  symbol,  some  of 
them  answered  that  a  very  beautiful  man  had  passed 
through  their  island  and  had  left  this  token  as  an 
everlasting  memorial ;  others  said  they  reverenced  it 
because  a  man  more  resplendent  than  the  sun  had  died 
on  it.* 

If  Cozumel  was  a  sacred  place  of  pilgrimages  for  the 
Yucatecs,^  it  was  not  so  because  of  its  crosses,  for  all 
ancient  authors  agree  in  saying  that  crosses  were  as 
numerous  in  the  adjoining  peninsula  as  they  were  in 


>  Roselly  de  Lorgues,  t.  i.  p.  324. 

*  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap.  i. 
p.  75  ;  t^ahagun,  t.  i.  p.  278  ;  Ctlee- 
8on,  vol.  i.  p.  141  ;  Bancroft,  vol. 
iii.  p.  470,  ref.  to  several  other  his- 
torians ;  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  375 ; 
Prescott,  Conqnest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
1.  pp.  225,  266. 


*  Coleccion  de  Documentoa,  t. 
Ixvi.,  B.  de  laa  Casas,  ch.  cxxiii.  p. 
453. 

*  P.  Martyr,  dec.  iv.  cap.  i.  ; 
Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35. 

«  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  375. 


P«-,U!«i."4i^^^^^»"W»p«Hip 


mWHRRi!" 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS   IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       437 

the  island  itself.  One  of  these  writers,  Herrera/  states 
that  every  village  of  Yucatan  had  its  temple  or  altar, 
where  the  people  went  to  worship  their  idols,  among 
which  were  many  crosses  of  wood  and  other  material ; 
and  Sahagun,^  that  crosses  were  found  even  on  the 
breasts  of  corpses  buried  long  since.^  In  Yucatan  and 
Guatemala  were  found  the  ruins  of  the  oldest  cities  of 
our  continent,  and  in  them  crosses  are  discovered,  some 
of  which  are  of  such  a  shape — namely,  Latin  crosses  or 
"  cruces  immissae" — that  they  seem  not  to  exceed  the 
fifth  century  of  our  era.  Two  such  crosses  were  un- 
earthed in  Palenque,  the  one  being  the  principal  object 
of  worship  in  one  of  its  sanctuaries,  which  is  therefore 
called  the  Temple  of  the  Cross.  It  is  a  bass-relief 
marble  tablet,  now  on  exhibition  in  the  vestibule  of  the 
National  Museum  at  Washington.  The  centre  repre- 
sents a  Latin  cross  surmounted  by  a  grotesque  bird,  and 
resting  upon  a  base  ornamented  with  several  figures, 
among  which  the  Christian  symbol,  the  fish,*  has  not 
been  forgotten.  On  each  side  stands  a  human  figure, 
apparently  priests,  the  one  making  ofierings  and  the 
other,  in  a  stiff  attitude,  appearing  to  pray  to  the  deity. 
The  whole  group  evidently  represents  a  scene  of  religious 
worship.^  At  a  small  distance  from  Palenque,  in  the 
so-called  Lorillard  City,  Charnay  ^  found  another  cross 
of  decidedly  Latin  shape,  and  on  one  of  that  place's 
prehistoric  door-lintels  two  standing  personages  are 
represented  as  respectfully  offering  a  cross  to  each 
other.' 


*  Dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap.  liv.  fo.  47. 
»  T.  i.  p.  278. 

'  Cf.  Hornius,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p. 
278  ;  GleeHon,  vol,  i.  p.  141. 

*  'IX^vf   'Ii)<rovt  XptiTTdt  6<ou  Yioc  Bur^p. 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  324  ;  American  Cyclopaedia,  art. 


CrosB  ;  Charnay,  p.  86 ;  Bancroft, 
vol.  iii.  p.  470  and  n.  24  ;  Gravier, 
p.  172,  n.  ;  von  Humboldt,  Ex- 
amen,  t.  ii.  p.  354. 

•  P.  86. 

'  Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  434. 


i  ' 


■ 

h 


438       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

In  the  year  1576  Palacio  saw  in  the  ancient  city  of 
Copan  another  cross  with  one  of  its  arms  broken/ 

The  great  antiquity  of  the  primitive  Maya  nation 
and  of  their  cities  would  seem  to  form  an  objection  to 
the  hypothesis  of  any  relation  existing  between  Chris- 
tianity and  the  crosses  discovered  in  their  ruins ;  but 
the  learned  Viollet-le-Duc  asserts  that  these  ruins  indi- 
cate a  stage  of  decadence  in  architecture ;  from  which 
we  might  infer  that  the  symbols  of  Christianity  were 
first  introduced  into  the  powerful  empire  of  Xibalba 
when  it  was  verging  already  towards  its  destruction — 
an  event  which,  according  to  several  authors,  took  place 
in  the  seventh  century  after  Christ.^ 

Nor  was  it  in  Central  America  only  that  the  cross 
was  held  in  great  veneration.  The  Spaniards  found 
crosses  also  in  Cholula,  Tullan,  Tezcuco,  and  Xalisco. 
Fernando  Cortes  was  astonished  at  the  sight  of  large 
stone  crosses,  evidently  objects  of  worship,  which  he 
saw  in  various  places.  It  was,  actually,  the  worship  of 
the  cross  which,  reminding  the  conqueror  of  his  native 
country,  induced  him  to  give  to  Anahuac  the  name  of 
New  Spain. ^  In  like  manner  did  Santa  Cruz  de  la 
Sierra,  Holy  Cross  of  the  Ridge,  receive  its  name  from 
the  fact  that  the  Indians  of  that  locality  showed  to 
their  Spanish  conquerors  a  cross  chiselled  into  a 
rock,  and  for  which  they  had  great  reverence  and 
devotion.* 

There  are  instances  of  the  great  symbol  of  Chris- 
tianity being  found  among  the  civilized  tribes  of  South 
America,  as  well  as  among  those  of  the  northern  half 


'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  327. 

*Cf.  Baicroft,  vol.  v.  pp.  630- 
632. 

'  Gle^oon,  t.  i.  p.  142,  ref.  to 
Veytia,  Historia  Antigua  de  Mex- 


ico, vol.  i.  p.  167 ;  Prescott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  225 ; 
Baatian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  375. 

*  Sahagun,     Dissertation    of    de 
Mier,  p.  iv. 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS    IN    ANCIENT    AMP^RICA.       439 

of  our  hemisphere.  The  Inca  Gcircilasso  de  la  Vega  ^ 
describes  one  of  ancient  Peru.  "  The  Inca  kings  of 
Cuzco,"  he  says,  "  had  been  in  possession  of  a  white 
and  rosy  marble  cross.  They  could  not  say  how  long 
a  time  they  had  it ;  I  saw  it  in  the  year  1560  in  the 
vestry  of  the  cathedral  of  that  metropolis.  The  cross 
formed  a  square,  being  as  wide  as  it  was  long, — namely, 
rather  less  than  three-fourths  of  a  '  vara,'  or  twenty- 
seven  inches, — and  it  was  three  inches  in  thickness. 
Made  of  one  block,  it  was  of  fine  workmanship,  its 
angles  being  correctly  cut,  and  its  material  finely  pol- 
ished and  shining.  They  used  to  keep  it,"  he  adds, 
"  in  one  of  their  royal  residences,  in  an  apartment  called 
*  huaca'  or  chapel.  They  gave  no  religious  worship  to 
it,  but  held  it  in  veneration,  perhaps  on  account  of  its 
beauty,  or  for  some  other  reason  which  they  could  not 
clearly  define."  Garcilasso  censures  the  ecclesiastical 
authority  of  Cuzco  for  keeping  the  valuable  monument 
concealed  in  a  vestry-room.  "  It  should,  beautifully 
adorned,  be  placed  on  the  altar,"  he  says,  "  in  order  to 
attract  the  natives  by  their  own  heirlooms  to  the  accept- 
ance of  our  faith ;  as  also  should  be  held  forth,  for  the 
same  purpose,  the  similarity  of  their  laws  and  regu- 
lations with  the  dictates  of  the  law  of  nature  and  the 
precepts  of  our  holy  religion."  "^ 

Father  Joaquin  Brulio  tells  us  of  another,  a  wooden 
cross,  worshipped  by  the  people  of  Peru  from  time  im- 
memorial. Speaking  of  this  cross,  Father  Garcia  says 
that  when  Drake,  the  English  captain,  arrived  on  the 
coast  he  endeavored  to  destroy  it,  but  did  not  succeed. 
Three  times  he  cast  it  into  the  fire,  and  three  times  it 
came  forth  from  the  flames  uninjured.     He  then  tried 


*  Comentarios,  lib.  ii.  cap.  iii.  p.     278  ;  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  Aiuer- 
36.  ica,  pp.  175,  327. 

'  Cf.  Hornius,  lib.  iv.  cap.  v.  p. 


f^;  ^ 


'  tf 


I'        'i 


V 


Ir1  i 


.1 


440       HISTORY   OF  AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS, 

to  break  it  into  pieces,  but  was  unsuccessful  again. 
Allegre  ^  substitutes,  however,  the  name  of  Candish  to 
that  of  Drake,  and  adds  the  particular  that  the  cross 
was  of  an  extremely  heavy  wood  and  different  from  any 
kind  to  be  found  in  the  province.  The  venerable 
emblem  was  afterwards  transferred  to  the  city  of  Gua- 
xaca  by  Bishop  Cervantes,  there  to  be  venerated  by  the 
Christians  ever  since.  A  smaller  cross  was  made  from 
one  of  the  arms,  and  placed  in  a  chapel  of  the  discalced 
Carmelites  of  that  place.  Bartholomew  de  las  Casas, 
bishop  of  Chiapa,  having  instituted  an  inquest  into  its 
origin,  tells  us  that,  according  to  the  tradition  of  the 
natives,  it  was  erected  in  that  city  by  a  venerable  white 
man  with  a  long  beard  and  flowing  white  robes,  who, 
accompanied  by  several  companions,  instructed  their 
ancestors  in  the  doctrines  and  practices  which  were 
found  to  resemble  those  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
who  had  commanded  that  when  a  race  would  arrive 
which  would  venerate  that  symbol  they  should  accept 
its  religion.'^ 

We  will  close  these  particulars  by  stating  that  there 
were  found  in  Peru,  in  a  prehistoric  tomb,  two  double 
vases,  either  of  which  was  surmounted  by  a  statue  bear- 
ing in  its  arms  a  relatively  large  Latin  or  "  immissa" 
cross.^ 

Should  we  meet  with  crosses  in  the  countries  only  of 
the  so-called  civilized  American  aborigines,  we  might, 
under  the  pressure  of  recent  tendencies,  set  up  a  theory 
of  unfounded  explanation  ;  but,  to  the  dismay  of  modern 
scientists,  it  is  historically  established  that  the  Christian 
emblem  was  venerated  also  by  the  most  barbarous  of 
American  natives  in  either  part  of  our  hemisphere. 


'  Hietoria  de   la   Compafiia    de 
JesuB,  Niieva  Espafla,  vol.  i.  p,  103. 
»  Gleeson,  t.  i.  p.  172. 


'  Gravier,  p.  171,  n.  2,  ref.  to  M. 
L.  Figuier,  Les  Merveilles  de  I'ln- 
dustrie,  p.  337,  fig.  242. 


m4' 


a  I'l 


1 


CHRIST   AND    HIS   CROSS   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       441 

We  shall  not  insist  upon  its  presence  in  Venezuela, 
whose  people  might  have  been  influenced  by  the  Incas 
of  Peru  in  making  use  of  the  St.  Andrew's  or  "  discus- 
sata"  cross  to  protect  themselves  against  sorcerers  and 
devils ;  ^  but  the  Jesuit  missionary  Ruiz  mentions  the 
discovery  of  a  cross  in  Paraguay  ;  ^  and  similar  relics 
were  found  in  Brazil,  in  Mizteca,  Queretaro,  Tepique, 
and  Tianquizteppc.^ 

Other  puzzles  of  the  same  kind  and  apparently  more 
difficult  to  solve  arise  in  the  East  and  Northeast.  On 
a  skeleton  discovered  beneath  a  mound  at  Zollicoffer 
Hill,  Tennessee,  a  copper  ornament  of  quite  peculiar 
form  was  found.  The  cross  surmounting  it  led  people 
to  suppose  that  it  was  of  European  origin.  Dr.  Jones 
mentions  the  same  emblem  as  an  ornament  on  some 
engraved  shells  and  copper  relics  likewise  found  in 
Tennessee.  A  skeleton  taken  from  one  of  the  Chilli- 
cothe  mounds  bore  a  cross  upon  its  breast,  and  the 
figure  of  a  man  with  a  cross  engraved  upon  its  shoul- 
ders was  discovered  beneath  a  mound  in  the  Cumber- 
land Valley.* 

The  most  curious  of  all  reports  regarding  the  worship 
of  the  cross  in  ancient  America  comes,  however,  from 
a  Recollet  Franciscan,  Chrestien  Leclercq,  who,  in  the 
year  1675,  arrived  as  a  missionary  in  Canada,  went  in 
1677  to  evangelize  a  savage  tribe  on  the  Miramichi 
River  in  the  present  New  Brunswick,  then  called  Gas- 
pesia,  where  he  remained  for  eight  successive  years,  and 
returned  to  France,  in  1687,  to  fill  the  honorable  and 


/ 


iii 


'.  'J 


*  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t. 
Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  Casas,  cap.  cxxv. 
p.  464  ;  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  375,  ref. 
to  Herrera. 

'  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  327 ;  von  Humboldt,  Exaraen, 
t.  ii.  p.  364 ;  ref.  to  Antonio  Ruiz, 


Conquista  Espiritual  del  Paraguay, 
If  23,  25. 

*  Gleeson,  t.  i.  p.  142  ;  Bancroft, 
vol.  iii.  p.  468,  n.  18. 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America, 
p.  175. 


m 

\ki 

i 

1 

M 


■  f  V 


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i  ii 


Bfet 

r.i' 

M  i 

■  >  \', 

■i    ; 

Hwl' 

:    ■ ' 

Liiirh 

m 


m 


442 


HI8TORY   ( 


\MERICA    liEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


important  position  of  guardian  of  the  monastery  of 
Lens  in  Artois.  We  shall  extract  a  few  passages 
bearing  upon  our  subject  from  his  interesting  "  Rela- 
tion," the  copies  of  which  have  become  very  scarce. 

He  says/  "  The  ancient  religious  homage  bestowed 
upon  the  cross,  even  until  this  day,  by  the  savages  of 
the  Miramichi  River,  to  which  we  have  given  the 
august  name  of  Holy  Cross  River,  might  well  make  us 
believe  that,  in  some  way  or  another,  those  people  have 
in  times  past  received  a  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  and 
of  Christianity,  which  must  afterwards  have  been  lost 
through  the  negligence  and  licentiousness  of  their  an- 
cestors. I  have  met  some  of  them,  whom  we  call 
'  Porte-Croix,'  Cross-bearers,  who  show,  infidels  as  they 
are,  a  singular  veneration  towards  the  Holy  Cross  :  they 
carry  it,  represented  on  their  clothes  and  on  their  skin ; 
they  hold  it  in  their  hands  on  all  their  journeys  and 
voyages,  and  they  place  it  without  and  within  their 
huts  as  a  distinguishing  mark  of  their  sup  iority  over 
the  other  Canadian  tribes. 

"  Judging  this  particular  to  be  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant of  my  *  Relation,'  I  have  deemed  proper  to  re- 
cite, after  my  twelve  years'  careful  researches,  the  origin 
of  this  worship  of  the  Cross."  ^ 

After  describing  the  sun-worship  of  the  Cross-bearers, 
which  consisted  in  respectful  greeting  of,  and  praying 
to,  the  sun  at  his  rise  and  setting,  Leclercq  adds : ''  "  I  do 
not  know  how  you  will  accept  their  tradition  in  regard 
to  the  introduction  among  them  of  the  veneration  of 
the  cross.  The  legend  is,  that  a  fierce  epidemic  was 
raging  among  their  forefathers  and  laying  low  many  of 
them.  The  best,  the  wisest,  and  the  most  considerable 
of  the  old  men,  at  their  council-meeting   had  fallen 


» P.  40. 

»  Pp.  169,  170. 


»  p.  172. 


■tt 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       443 


asleep  with  profound  sadness  at  tlie  sight  of  the  general 
desolation  and  of  the  impending  extinction  of  their 
tribe,  should  not  the  Sun  rescue  them  soon  with  power- 
ful intervention.  During  this  painful  sleep  a  man  of 
exquisite  beauty  appeared  to  them  with  a  cross  in  his 
hands,  and  told  them  to  take  courage,  to  return  home, 
to  make  crosses  after  the  pattern  of  his  own,  and  to  give 
them  to  the  head  of  every  family  ;  and  he  promised 
them  that  all  who  would  revcx'ently  receive  the  crosses 
would  infallibly  be  saved  from  all  their  woes.*  The 
savages,  believing  in  dreams  with  superstitious  credu- 
lity, did  not  neglect  this  one  in  their  extreme  distress. 
The  good  old  people  went  back  to  their  tents,  and 
called  a  general  meeting  of  all  that  was  left  alive  of  the 
nation.  All  unanimously  agreed  to  receive  with  honors 
the  sacred  sign  of  the  cross  which  heaven  offered  to 
them  for  the  end  of  their  misfortune  and  a  new  begin- 
ning of  happiness.  They  did  well,  for  from  that  in- 
stant the  epidemic  ceased,  and  even  those  who  suffered 
of  it  already  were  miraculously  cured.*^ 

"  This  admirable  effect  led  them  to  expect  from  the 
cross  wonders  greater  still  in  times  to  come,  and  they 
concluded  to  decide  no  business,  to  undertake  no  journey, 
without  the  aid  of  the  cross.  It  was  resolved  in  council 
that  all,  not  even  the  little  children  excepted,  must  wear 
a  cross  in  their  hands,  on  their  vestments,  or  on  their 
skin,  whenever  they  would  appear  in  the  presence  of 
others.  When  there  was  any  important  concern  at 
hand,  such  as  making  peace  or  declaring  war,  the  chief 
called  together  the  ancient  of  the  tribe.  These  com- 
menced by  erecting  a  cross  nine  feet  high,  and  then 
they  took  their  seats  in  a  circle  around  it,  each  one 
holding  a  small  cross  in  his  hands.     The  chief  stated 


\¥ 


i 
''I 


' 


iir 


1  p.  174. 


"P.  175. 


f 


■'h 


444       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

the  object  of  the  meeting,  and  each  councilman  solemnly 
proffered  his  opinion.  It  was  under  the  tegis  of  the 
Christian  symbol  that  the  final  resolution  was  taken. 
When  the  council  decided  to  despatch  an  ambassador 
to  a  neighboring  or  foreign  tribe,  the  chief  invited 
within  the  circle  the  young  brave  chosen  to  that  effect, 
and,  after  having  told  him  the  reason  of  his  selection 
and  the  object  of  the  mission,  he  drew  from  his  bosom 
a  cross  wonderfully  beautiful,  carefully  wrapped  up  in 
all  he  had  the  most  precious ;  then  showing  it  to  the 
whole  assembly,  he  made  a  formal  speech,  to  rehearse 
all  the  blessings  obtained  for  the  nation  through  this 
sacred  emblem.  Finally,  he  ordered  the  envoy  to  ap- 
proach and  reverently  receive  the  cross,  and,  when 
hanging  it  around  his  neck,  he  spoke  these  words  :  *  Go, 
and  preserve  this  cross  which  shall  preserve  thee  from 
all  danger  among  those  to  whom  thou  art  sent.'  And 
the  whole  council  approved  the  words  of  the  chief  with 
the  ordinary  exclamation  of  '  Hoo,  hoo,  hoo  !'  Then 
the  ambassador  set  out  on  his  way,  the  beautiful  cross 
hanging  from  his  neck ;  only  when  going  to  sleep  did 
he  take  it  off  and  lay  it  under  his  head  as  a  preserva- 
tive from  evil  spirits ;  and  at  his  return  he  solemnly 
gave  it  up  again  to  the  chief,  in  presence  of  the  council 
to  whom  he  was  to  make  a  report  of  his  achieve- 
ments.^ 

"  In  a  vt^ord  the  Gaspesian  Cross-bearers  undertook 
nothing  without  the  intervention  of  the  cross.  When 
travelling  on  the  water,  they  had  one  fastened  to  each 
end  of  their  slender  bark  canoes  as  a  protection  against 
shipwreck  ;  and  their  chief  used  it  constantly  as  a  cane, 
and  had  it  set  up  in  the  most  honorable  place  of  his 
cabin. 

»P.  180. 


}:Si^ 


CHRI8T    AND    HIW    CROH8    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       445 

"  Such  was  formerly  the  respect  and  veneration  of 
those  people  for  the  sacred  symbol,  as  it  is  yet ;  for  no 
one  of  the  Cross-bearers'  tribe  is  without  having  it  rep- 
resented on  his  clothing  or  on  his  skin.  The  cradles 
and  the  wraps  of  infants  are  adorned  with  a  cross,  as  are 
the  pieces  of  bark  that  cover  the  huts  ;  snow-shoes  and 
canoes  are  marked  with  it.  Women  expecting  a 
mother's  joy  have  the  part  of  their  blanket  or  shawl 
that  covers  their  stomach  adorned  with  a  cross  made  of 
red-stained  porcupine  quills,  in  order  to  place  their 
precious  fruit  under  its  powerful  protection.  Besides 
all  this,  each  individual  religiously  keeps  a  small  cross 
made  of  shells  or  beads,  which  is  as  precious  to  him 
as  holy  relics  are  to  us,  and  which  he  would  not  barter 
for  the  most  liberal  offers."  As  an  instance  of  this, 
he  relates  the  fact  of  a  woman  swimming  across  the 
Miramichi  River,  abandoning  her  all  on  its  bank,  yet 
preserving  her  cross  between  her  teeth. ^ 

"  It  is  a  public  fact,"  he  continues,  "  that  the  burial 
grounds  of  these  Cross-bearers  are  known  by  the  crosses 
planted  over  their  graves,  and  resemble  more  the 
church-yards  of  Christians  than  the  necropoles  of 
savages.  They  went  forth,  to  put  up  the  mysterious 
emblem  on  the  last  resting-places  of  their  dead,  to 
localities  three  hundred  miles  distant.  They  even 
placed  a  cross  on  their  dead  people's  chests  within  the 
coffins,  with  the  confidence  that  this  sign  would  accom- 
pany them  into  the  next  world,  in  which  they  firmly 
believed,  and  would  there  allow  their  ancestors  to 
recognize  them  as  distinguished  from  all  the  other 
despised  nations  of  New  France.^ 

"  The  garden-plots  of  the  living,  their  fishing  waters, 
and  their  hunting  districts  were  marked  off  by  crosses, 


J 


« 


»  p.  184. 


Ibid. 


li 


446       HIHTORY    OF    AMKIIICA    IJKFOKE    COLUMHUH. 

as  well  as  their  cemeteries ;  and  it  was  a  delight  to 
meet  from  time  to  time  with  this  honored  landmark 
along  their  water-courses,  where  it  was  erected,  at 
various  distances,  with  double  and  triple  branches." 

Any  ordinary  reader  will  have  noticed  already  that 
the  confidence  in  the  Hign  of  the  cross  was  excessive 
and  superstitious  on  the  part  of  the  Cross-bearers ;  and 
the  very  natural  consequence  was  that  when  the  sacred 
emblem  did  not  afford  them  their  exorbitant  expecta- 
tions, they  lost  even  their  reasonable  confidence  in  it  to 
such  an  extent  that,  when  Father  Leclercq  appeared 
among  them  to  restore  the  worship  of  the  cross,  the 
generality  of  the  nation  had  hardly  preserved  any 
veneration  for  it,  and  its  religious  respect  was  kept  up 
only  by  some  older  representatives  of  the  tribe. 

The  Cross-bearers  had  almost  been  wiped  out  by 
unsuccessful  wars  with  the  Iroquois,  says  Leclercq, 
and  by  three  or  four  successive  epidemics  that  had 
ravaged  the  country ;  and  their  younger  children  had 
lost  almost  all  reliance  on  the  ancient  miraculous  shield 
of  their  ancestors ;  the  cross  was  no  longer  the  centre 
of  their  council-meetings.  So  evident  it  is,  says  the 
philosophizing  friar,  that  when  even  the  holiest  prac- 
tices are  not  kept  up  by  the  illuminating  activity  that 
originated  them,  they  necessarily  suffer  from  fatal  hu- 
man inconstancy ;  clearly  insinuating  again  what  he 
expressed  before, — namely,  the  want  of  teachers  to 
continue  the  work  of  former  civilizers. 

The  practical  tradition  of  the  Cross-bearers  of  Gas- 
pesia  was  not,  however,  lost  altogether,  as  appears  from 
an  incident  of  Father  Leclercq's  missionary  excursions. 
One  day,  he  relates,  he  visited  a  native  named  En- 
jougoumouet,  not  yet  baptized,  although  fifty  or  sixty 
years  old.  He  was  quite  surprised  at  seeing  a  beautiful 
cross  adorned  with  beads  set  up  in  the  principal  place 


■»ihttir-.iJBS 


CHKIBT   AND    HIH   CROWH    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       447 


of  the  tent,  where  it  stood  between  two  women,  one  of 
whom  WU8  his  legitimate  wife  and  tlie  other  a  concu- 
bine, who  had  miraculouHly  come  down  from  heaven 
to  assist  him,  the  Indian  said.'  *'  1  respectfully  took 
tiiai  cross  in  my  hands,"  he  writes,  "  and  findinj^  in 
that  object  of  piety  a  suitable  occasion  to  instruct  those 
savages,  I  told  Enjougoumouet  that  this  was  the  sign 
of  a  Christian  and  the  emblem  of  our  salvation,  but 
that  it  also  taught  purity  and  condemned  the  criminal 
bigamy  in  which  he  was  living ;  and,  as  a  consequence, 
that  he  had  now  either  to  send  away  his  concubine  or 
give  up  his  cross.  *  If  it  is  so,'  the  Indian  answered, 
*  I  would  rather  a  thousand  times  abandon  not  only 
the  woman  that  came  from  heaven,  but  even  my  wife 
and  my  children  themselves,  than  part  with  this  cross, 
which  by  birthright  I  have  inherited  from  my  ances- 
tors; and  I  want  to  leave  it  to  my  oldest  son,  as  a 
mark  of  superiority  of  the  Miramichi  nation  above  all 
other  tribes  of  New  France.'  He  promised  to  obey, 
and  the  young  woman  herself,  touched  by  my  words, 
left  for  her  parents'  home  and  was  instructed  for 
baptism."  "^ 

Father  Leclercq  concludes  by  sayi..g:  "I  leave  the 
reader  to  judge  for  himself  in  regard  to  the  origin  of 
the  cross  among  the  Gaspesians,  as  I  have  no  better 
authority  in  stating  the  facts  than  the  testimony  of 
those  savages  and  my  personal  experience  among  them." 

Father  Charlevoix,  inclined  to  disbelieve  what  he 
cannot  account  for,  takes  the  easy  method  of  accusing 
the  honest  friar  of  deceptive  invention ;  although  he 
does  not  make  the  same  charge  against  the  second 
bishop  of  Quebec,  who,  after  Leclercq's  return  to 
Europe,  sent  another  priest  to  the  Indians  of  Holy 


»  Relation,  p.  238. 


P.  239. 


.'   )l 


ii|:  * 

;!i!  . 


I. 


'      111' 


1 


I 


Hi 


'1 

lit '  n 


j'Mi 


448       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Cross  River,  and  who,  after  visiting  them  himself, 
published  a  report^  which  confirms  in  every  respect 
the  relation  of  the  first  missionary,  to  which  it  even 
adds  some  very  interesting  details, — namely,  among 
several  others,  that  the  chief  of  the  tribe  was  distin- 
guished by  small  crosses  which  he  carried  on  his 
shoulders  and  which  were  joined  with  the  one  that  he 
bore  on  his  chest,  thus  forming  a  kind  of  pallium. 
These  crosses  were  trimmed  with  blood-red  stained 
porcupine  quills.  Besides  these,  the  chief  had  three 
other  crosses, — to  wit,  triple  crosses  or  with  triple  arms, 
like  the  papal  cross  ;  and  one  of  these  was  to  adorn  his 
canoe,  another  the  entrance,  and  the  third  the  centre 
of  his  cabin.  These  details  show  that  the  bishop's 
report  was  not  taken  from  the  one  of  Father  Leclercq, 
whose  "  New  Relation"  was,  moreover,  published  only 
three  years  later.^ 

We  shall  not  follow  Beauvois  in  giving  further 
proofs,  against  Charlevoix  and  Lafitau,  of  the  credi- 
bility of  Father  Leclercq,  but  rather  refer  the  reader 
to  this  modern  historical  critic,^  as  also  to  Gaffarel,* 
Gravier,'^  Bastiau,"  and  others  who  simply  admit  the 
facts  as  related. 

The  easy  method  of  denying  the  statements  of  the 
first  missionaries  and  historians  in  regard  to  the  crosses 
discovered  all  over  ancient  America,  or  of  treating 
them  as  idle  stories,  has  found  several  adherents  among 
subsequent  writers.'  But  this  system  entails  the  grave 
and  unwarrantable  accusation  of  wilful  deception  on  the 


*  Efitat  present  de  I'Eglise  et  de 
la  Colonie  frarKjaiee  dans  la  Nou- 
velle  France,  par  Mr.  I'Ev^que  de 
Quebec,  John  Bapt.  de  Lacroix 
Chevrifires  de  Saint  V'allier,  ap. 
Beauvois,  Derniers  Vesti.^ca,  p.  11, 
seq. 


*  Beauvois,  Les  Derniers  Vestiges 
du  Christianisnie,  p.  14. 

'  Les  Derniers  Vestiges,  etc.,  p. 
15,  xcq. 

*  T.  i.  pp.  290,  444  450. 
»  P.  174. 

«  Bd.  ii.  S.  375. 

'  Hornius,  p.  8  ;  alii. 


II  I'' 


CHRIST    AND    HIS   CROSS    IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.       449 

part  of  many  simple-hearted  friars  and  reliable  authors, 
and  of  Stolid  credulity  on  the  part  of  a  host  of  learned 
critics.  "  Those  crosses,"  says  von  Humboldt,'  "  are 
no  monkish  tales,  and  deserve  to  be  taken  into  earnest 
consideration." 

The  fact  of  their  existence  being  admitted,  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  ancient  crosses  cannot  be  doubtful,  it 
seems.  The  same  von  Humboldt,  a  better  geographer 
and  historian  than  were  Lafitau  and  Charlevoix,  re- 
ceives as  truthful  not  only  the  narration  of  Fatlier 
Leclercq,  but  also  his  conjecture  as  to  the  Christian 
origin  of  the  singular  veneration  of  the  cross  in  Gas- 
pesia.  Both  the  discoverers  and  the  missionaries  of 
the  sixteenth  century  were  convinced  that  the  crosses 
they  met  with  among  the  American  aborigines  were 
emblems  of  Christianity,  although  their  introduction 
was  a  perplexing  and  insolvable  puzzle  to  them.  This 
very  ignorance  of  their  origin,  and  the  glories  that 
would  arise  for  the  Church  from  the  prima-facie  evi- 
dence and  signification  of  these  crosses, — namely,  that 
Christian  teachers  had  brought  to  the  American  races 
the  light  of  civilization  long  before  the  Spanish  and 
other  conquistadores  spread  over  them  the  gloomy 
shadows  of  servitude  and  extinction,  and  that  what- 
ever we  find  of  social  order  and  material  progress 
among  our  most  advanced  Indian  nations  was  probably 
the  scanty  remainder  of  a  once  flourishing  Christian 
society, — are  for  many  writers  sufl&cient  reasons  to 
deny  the  ancient  existence  of  at  least  some  of  those 
crosses  and  to  torment  their  own  brains  in  order  to 
substitute  a  vulgar  or  even  an  immoral  meaning  in 
the  place  of  the  lofty  Christian  idea  expressed  by  these 
venerated  religious  symbols.*^ 


'  Examen,  t.  ii.  p.  354. 
I.— 29     • 


'  As  does  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  469. 


450       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I.   1 


^1  -If^ffl 


W^x- 


i\\ 


Mr.  Stephens  thinks  that  the  celebrated  Cozumel 
cross,  preserved  at  Merida,  which  claims  the  credit  of 
being  the  same  originally  worshipped  by  the  natives  of 
Cozumel,  is,  after  all,  nothing  but  a  cross  that  was 
erected  by  the  Spaniards,  after  the  conquest,  in  one  of 
their  own  temples  in  that  island.  This  pretended  fact 
he  regards  as  completely  invalidating  the  strongest 
proof  offered  at  this  day  that  the  cross  was  recognized 
by  the  Indians  as  a  symbol  of  worship.^  But  the  real 
proof  of  the  existence  of  the  cross  as  an  object  of  wor- 
ship in  the  New  World  does  not  so  much  rest  on  monu- 
ments like  this,  as  on  the  unequivocal  testimony  of  the 
Spanish  discoverers  themselves.  Moreover,  the  general 
character  of  the  irreproachable  first  missionaries  in  that 
country  excludes  the  supposition  of  such  useless  attempt 
at  deceit  on  their  part. 

It  is  objected  that  in  Egypt  a  piece  of  wood  fastened 
horizontally  to  an  upright  beam  indicated  the  height 
of  the  overflow  of  the  Nile,  and  we  add  that  similar 
marks  of  the  overflow  of  the  Tiber  can  be  seen  in 
Christian  Rome.  But  does  it  not  require  a  consider- 
able amount  of  reasoning  and  of  good  will  to  draw 
from  such  a  common  mark  the  startling  conclusion 
that  "  in  Egypt  the  cross  came  to  be  worshipped  as  a 
symbol  of  life  and  generation,  or  feared  as  an  image 
of  death  and  decay"  ?  "^  Be  this  as  it  may,  there  is  no 
evidence  to  prove  that  such  a  signification  was  attached 
to  the  Latin  cross  by  aboriginal  Americans,  nor  even 
that  they  made  use  of  it  as  a  high-water-mark  along  the 
rivers.^  Others  consider  the  cross  merely  as  an  astro- 
nomical sign,  in  particular  as  a  symbol  of  the  solstices.* 

We  fail  to  see  the  analogy,  but  must  acknowledge 


*  Travels    in    Yucatan,    vol.    il. 
ch.  XX. 
'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  469. 


'  Gravier,  p.  173,  n. 
*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  470,  ref.  to 
several  authors. 


i 


r'r^*'! 


CHRIST   A?fD    HI8   CROSS    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.        451 

that  the  cross  is,  for  many  centuries  already,  the  sign 
of  addition  or  of  multiplication  in  arithmetic.  With 
the  Mexicans  it  was  the  symbol  of  the  four  winds,  the 
bearers  of  rain  ;  and  this  is  probably  the  reason  why 
many  of  our  weather  vanes  surmount  yet  a  horizontal 
cross,  the  branches  of  which  are  adorned  with  the  letters 
N,  E,  S,  W.  Brinton  proposes  another  explanation, 
quite  cs  likely :  From  a  statement  that  the  Mexicans 
had  cruciform  graves,  he  concludes  that  the  cross  refers 
to  four  spirits  of  the  world  who  were  to  carry  the  de- 
ceased to  heaven.  Bancroft,^  however,  remarks  that 
there  seems  to  be  a  mistake  in  both  of  these  positions, 
and  thinks  that  some  of  the  crosses,  lacking  the  head 
piece,  resemble  somewhat  the  Mexican  coin. 

While  speaking  of  coin,  we  should  not  forget  to  notice 
that  on  the  moneys  of  Sidon,  of  the  third  century  be- 
fore Christ,  we  see  the  goddess  Astaroth  holding  in  her 
hand  a  rod  surmounted  with  a  small  cross  ;  "^  and  Sar- 
gon,  who  ascended  the  throne  of  Assyria  in  the  year 
721  before  our  era,  is  represented  with  an  ear-ring  of 
the  shape  of  a  cross.' 

We  might  mention  several  more  instances  of  the 
cross  being  used  as  an  ornament  in  pagan  antiquity,  as 
it  is  still,  both  with  Christians  and  infidels ;  as  an  orna- 
ment not  only  of  mortal  beings,  but  also  of  dead  gods, 
examples  of  which  have  been  carefully  looked  up  in 
Egypt  and  in  India ;  nay,  the  hammer  of  the  Scandi- 
navian Thor  is  admitted  to  be  a  cross.  Mr.  Maurice, 
in  his  "  Indian  Antiquities,"  *  writes :  '*  Let  not  the 
piety  of  the  Catholic  Christian  be  offended  at  the  asser- 
tion that  the  cross  was  one  of  the  most  usual  symbols 
among  the  hieroglyphics  of  Egypt  and  India."     No ;  a 


:i!ll 


1  Vol.  iii.  p.  470,  n.  22. 
•  Von  Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  ii. 
p.  366. 


'  Gravier,  p.  173,  n. 
*  Vol.  ii.  p.  361. 


^    > 


>   f  'I 


up 


I  il 


11   'I  . 


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J   1 


J' 


Mi! 


It-i 


I  II'! 


ri  pHj 


I 


452       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Catholic  Christian  will  not  be  scandalized  at  such  a 
trifle  when  he  himself  uses,  every  day,  the  letters  T 
and  X.  In  fact,  the  form  of  the  cross  is  and  has 
always  been,  with  a  thousand  varieties,  in  such  common 
use  that  Mr.  Menant  ^  declares  it  to  be  an  artist's  whim, 
devoid  of  all  symbolism  ;  and  Bancroft,  although  mis- 
taking in  fact,  is  right  in  theory,  when  he  says,  "  The 
symbol  itself  is  so  simple  and  suggestive  of  so  many 
ideas" — and  of  no  ideas  at  all — "  that  it  seems  to  me 
most  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  natives  adopted  it 
without  foreign  aid." 

It  is,  however,  hardly  necessary  to  remark  that  the 
cross,  reduced  to  the  proportions  of  a  writing  character, 
of  a  capricious  ornament,  of  a  jewel,  or  even  of  the  ad- 
junct of  a  worshipped  idol,  is  not  the  cross  that  we  spoke 
of  as  being  unexpectedly  discovered  in  America.  This 
latter  cross  is  not  an  ornament,  but  ornamented ;  not 
an  adjunct,  but  an  individuality  by  itself;  not  a  mark 
or  means  of  worship,  but  worshipped  ;  it  is  not  a  symbol 
of  rain  or  bodily  cure,  but  a  power  from  which  rain  and 
health  are  implored  with  prayer  and  sacrifice.  And, 
indeed,  it  is  actually  a  power,  because,  after  all,  it  is 
the  Christian  emblem,  the  symbol  of  that  Tree  of  Life, 
"  Tonacaquahuitl,"  as  the  Mexicans  call  it,  dying  upon 
which  our  Saviour  has  restored  to  us  a  right  to  that 
happy  everlasting  life  which  the  first  parent  of  mankind 
had  lost  by  eating  the  fruit  of  the  tree  which  might  be 
called  the  Tree  of  Death. 

This  cross  was  the  Christian  cross,  the  only  one  ever 
worshipped  in  the  wide  world.**  It  is  well  known,  in- 
deed, that  the  cross,  in  its  own  entity,  as  an  individual 
thing,  was  ever  held  as  an  object,  not  of  respect  and 
veneration,  but  of  contempt  and  contumely.     Palacio 


•  Elements  d'Epigrapliie  Assyri- 
enne,  ap.  Gravier,  p.  173,  n. 


»  Cf.  Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  434. 


b 


it 


CHRIST   AND    HIS   CROSS   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.       453 

asserts  that  the  Palenque  cross  proves  the  Tyrian  origin 
of  the  aborigines ;  but  Hornius  answers  well  that  Pala- 
cio's  error  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  cross  was 
nowhere  honored  before  Christ  died  on  it,  and  that  the 
Tyrians  made  use  of  it  as  an  instrument  to  inflict  the 
most  ignominious  death/  The  cross  was  the  instrument 
of  the  most  degrading  capital  punishment,  not  only 
with  the  Phoenicians,  but  also  with  the  Romans,  the 
Asiatics,  and  nearly  all  nations  of  antiquity,'^  and  in 
particular  with  the  Jews,  who  were  afraid  that  their 
victim,  our  Lord  Jesus-Christ,  might  die  on  the  way 
to  Calvary,  and  thus  escape  the  disgrace  of  the  most 
shameful  death.  Only  since  our  Saviour  has  glorified 
the  cross  by  his  blood  has  it  become  an  object  of  honor 
and  triumph  and  of  religious  veneration  among  his 
disciples  of  the  Old  World  and  of  our  continent ;  for 
here,  as  there,  was  the  cross,  as  cross,  whether  of  wood, 
of  stone,  or  of  gold,  a  sacred  emblem,  receiving  the  re- 
spectful prayers  and  oblations,  if  not  the  idolatrous 
worship,  of  the  people.  In  temples  of  religion  and  by 
the  hearths  of  the  homes,  in  the  palaces  of  the  kings 
and  in  the  graves  of  the  serfs  was  it  found  to  be  so 
evidently  an  object  of  devotion,  that  the  Christian  dis- 
coverers and  missionaries  had  no  doubt  of  the  ancient 
American  crosses  being  the  same  grand  symbol  of 
Christianity  as  those  they  had  carried  along  from  their 
native  countries. 

To  exclude  all  doubt  on  this  important  subject,  we 
shall  add  that  in  ancient  America  were  discovered  not 
only  representations  of  the  cross  on  which  our  Saviour 
died,  but  also  of  our  Saviour  himself  dying  on  it ;  that 
is,  not  only  crosses,  but  crucifixes  also.  ■      , 


IBT- 


i 


i: 


ii-  f. 


'[M 


'  Palacio,  ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii. 
p.  470,  n.  24 ;  Hornius,  p.  129,  ni 
fallar. 


^  Boletfn,  t.  ix.  p.  177  ;  American 
Cyclopsedia,  art.  Cross. 


^! 


454       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBU8. 


Diego  Duran  relates  how  a  Spaniard  asserted  under 
oath  that  he  had  seen  a  crucifix  chiselled  on  one  of  the 
abrupt  walls  of  a  ravine  in  the  country  of  the  Zapo- 
tecs.^  Another  such  crucifix  was  discovered  sculptured 
on  a  rock  near  Tepic  in  the  province  of  Jalisco.*^ 
Bernardino  de  Sahagun  states  that  in  the  year  1570 
some  Franciscan  friars  worthy  of  belief  had  seen  in 
Oaxaca  certain  pictures  executed  on  deer-skins  and 
representing  divers  scenes  of  Christian  history.  One 
of  them  exhibited  a  group  of  two  women  standing  side 
by  side,  and  of  a  third  in  front  of  them  who  was  hold- 
ing a  wooden  cross  and  contemplating  a  naked  man 
that  was  stretched  out  on  a  similar  cross,  to  which  his 
hands  and  his  feet  were  tied  with  cords.^  Does  not  this 
painting  recall  to  our  mind  the  text  of  St.  John,  "  Now 
there  stood  by  the  cross  of  Jesus  his  mother,  and  his 
mother's  sister,  Mary  of  Cleophas,  and  Mary  Magda- 
lene" ?  *  Torquemada,  another  learned  and  pioneer 
missionary  of  Mexico,  relates  the  same  facts,  with  suf- 
ficient variation  to  show  that  he  is  a  second  original 
witness ;  and  he  adds  that  the  nation  of  the  Otomis 
were  until  his  time  carefully  preserving  a  venerable 
old  manuscript,  written  in  two  columns,  whose  inter- 
vening spaces  were  filled  with  illuminations,  one  of 
which  represerted  Christ  crucified.^ 

A  specimen  of  prehistoric  American  crucifixes  can 
be  seen  until  this  day :  Las  Casas  speaks  of  a  most  re- 
markable cross  found  in  the  island  of  Cozumel.  It  was 
made  of  stone  and  cement,  ten  palms  or  nearly  seven 


1  Historia  de  las  Indiaa  de  Nueva     791,  ap.  Congr^s  International  dea 


Espafia,  t.  ii.  p.  76 ;  Gaffarel,  t.  i. 
p.  435,  and  Congrds  International 
des  Am^ricanistes,  1883,  p.  133. 
See  Document  XV. 

»  Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  436. 

'  Sahagun,    lib.   xi.  cap.  xiii.  p. 


Am^ricanistee,    1888,   p.   133,   and 
Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  43«. 

*  St.  John  xix.  25. 

*  Congr^s  International,  1883-84, 
p.  133 ;  Ivjrquemada,  lib.  xv.  cap. 
xlix. 


CHRIST   AND    HIS   CROSS    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.       455 


feet  high,  and  worshipped  in  one  of  the  temples/  A 
companion  of  Cortes  had  admired  the  same  cross,  be- 
cause he  saw  on  it  the  figure  of  a  man  crucified.^  The 
image  was  made  of  cement,  and  a  foot  and  a  half  high. 
This  cross  and  crucifix  was  afterwards  transferred  to 
the  convent  of  the  Franciscan  friars  in  the  town  of 
Merida,  as  attested  by  an  authentic  inscription  repro- 
duced by  Diego  Lopez  Cogolludo.  The  historian  of 
Yucatan  further  relates  the  interesting  particulars,  that 
the  venerable  monument  was  placed  in  the  cloister- 
yard  of  their  convent ;  that  it  was  about  three  feet 
wide,  with  stem  and  arms  of  six  inches  square ;  that, 
probably  while  transported,  it  had  undergone  a  frac- 
ture of  its  upright  stock,  and  that  a  small  piece  of  it 
had  been  lost.  He  does  not  neglect  the  important 
detail  that  a  holy  crucifix,  half  a  yard  in  size,  and 
chiselled  in  demi-relief,  was  attached  to  it.^  After  the 
destruction  of  their  monastery  one  of  the  friars  ex- 
tracted it  from  the  ruins  and  placed  it  in  the  wall  of 
the  first  left -side  altar  of  the  church  of  the  Mejorada. 
The  fact  was  related  to  the  traveller  Stephens,  who 
saw  the  cross  and  says,  "  Tt  is  of  stone,  has  a  venerable 
appearance  of  antiquity,  and  has  extended  on  it  in 
half-relief  an  image  of  the  Saviour,  made  of  plaster, 
with  the  hands  and  feet  nailed."  * 

Should  there  ever  be  established  a  continental  mu- 
seum of  American  antiquities,  we  would  suggest  that 


^  Congriis  Internatior.  \1,  1883-84, 
p.  134,  ref.  to  Liis  Coh^s,  t.  v.  p. 
453. 

^  Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  434,  ref.  to 
Icazbalceta,  Docuinentos  para  la 
Historia  de  Mexico,  18()4,  p.  555. 

'  Congress  International,  1883-84, 
p.  134,  ref.  to  Cogolludo,  Historia 
de  Yucathan,  Madrid,  1688,  lib.  ii. 
cap.  xi.  p.  96,  and  lib.  iv.  cap.  ix. 


p.  201  :  "Tiene  sacada  de  medio 
relieve  en  la  miania  piedra  una 
ligura  de  un  santo  crucifijo,  como 
de  media  vara  de  largo." 

*  John  L.  Stephens,  Incidents  of 
Travel  in  Yucatan,  p.  378,  quoted 
by  Congr^a  International,  1883-84, 
p.  135,  and  (Jaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  435  ; 
cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  470,  n. 
23. 


450       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


fi 

h    r 

;  1 

0 

I  Ml 

tJ 


the  crucifix  of  Merida,  together  with  the  other  ancient 
crucifixes,  crosses,  and  Christian  books  and  relics  dis- 
covered or  yet  to  be  discovered  in  our  hemisphere,  be 
placed  or  represented  in  one  special  section,  to  which 
might  appropriately  be  given  the  title  of  Prehistoric 
Monuments  of  Christianity  in  America ;  for  if  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  crosses  may  be  subject  to  infidel  cavil 
and  sophistry,  no  one,  we  presume,  will  contest  the 
Christian  meaning  of  the  images  of  our  crucified  Lord 
and  Redeemer,  as  no  other  institution,  society,  or  re- 
ligion ever  thought  of  venerating  such  an  emblem. 

We  understand  the  consequences  of  our  bold  opinion, 
and  we  agree  that  from  it  one  might  inductively  argue 
the  necessity  of  finding  in  ancient  America  remnants 
of  doctrine  and  vestiges  of  morals  no  less  argumenta- 
tive of  prehistoric  Christian  evangelization  than  the 
religious  emblems  themselves.  A  sign  may  outlast  its 
idea,  but  it  may  readily  be  supposed  that  a  truth  will 
continue  to  sustain  its  expression.  We  feel  it,  there- 
fore, our  imperative  duty  to  further  inquire  whether 
the  religious  tenets  and  practices  of  pre-Columbian 
Americans  justify  the  theory  that  America  was  either 
partly  or  wholly  a  Christian  country  long  before  the 
fifteenth  century  of  our  era. 


i%4j 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

BAPTISM   AND   HOLY   EUCHARIST   IN   ANCIENT   AMERICA, 

We  have  seen  ^  that  the  fundamental  truths  of  the 
Christian  religion,  which  are  also  truths  of  natural 
reason  and  of  primeval  revelation,  were  not  altogether 
unknown  to  the  American  aborigines ;  we  have  also 
noticed  *  that  select  Indian  traditions  afford  American 
material  to  rewrite  the  history  of  Christ  and  of  his 
blessed  mother  ;  but,  before  giving  an  assertive  form  to 
conclusions  of  many  ancient  writers,  it  may  be  required 
that  we  should  set  forth  such  unmistakable  analogies 
between  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the  American 
natives  and  those  of  the  church  of  Christ  as  should 
prevent  any  reasonable  man  from  venturing  to  deny 
the  actual  establishment  of  Christianity  in  the  greater 
part  of  our  western  hemisphere  and  its  powerful 
influence  for  good  during  centuries  anterior  to  the 
Columbian  discovery. 

We  disclaim,  of  course,  any  analogy  with  the  cruel, 
immoral,  and  barbarous  customs  of  the  Aztecs  and  of 
kindred  nations  which  we  have  exposed  ;  but  since  the 
actual  condition  of  religious  institutions  in  civilized 
America  was  truly  a  dualism  of  antagonistic  principles, 
we  should  not  be  astonished  at  finding,  in  the  midst  of 
the  lowest  degradation,  evidences  of  sound  doctrine 
and  of  virtuous  practices. 

The  sixth  book  of  Sahagun's  "  History  of  New 
Spain,"  relating  the  solemn  prayers  and  addresses  of 
the  Mexicans  on  private  and  on  public  occasions,  teems 


Vi-''  A 


■,>  U 


Supra,  p.  363,  seq. 


Supra,  p.  425,  seq. 


467 


458       HISTOUY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 


with  lessons  of  great  wisdom  and  of  the  purest  ethics, 
with  teachings  of  good  sense  and  of  genuine  Chris- 
tianity/ as  we  may  judge  from  the  following  short 
extracts : 

"...  Is  it  possible,  O  Lord,  that  this  calamity  and 
scourge  should  not  be  for  our  correction  and  amend- 
ment, but  for  our  total  destruction  and  ruin  ?"  "^ 

"...  And  deign  to  do  it,  O  Lord,  for  the  sake  of 
thy  liberality  and  of  thy  magnificence  ;  because  no  one 
is  worthy  nor  deserves  through  his  dignity  or  merits 
to  receive  from  thy  bounty,  but  only  through  thy 
goodness."  ^ 

"...  But  God  sees  you  suffer  and  forbear,  and  he 
will  answer  for  you  and  avenge  you,  if  you  are  humble 
with  all  men  ;  and,  besides,  he  will  have  mercy  and 
bestow  honors  upon  you."  * 

The  most  striking  parallel  with  the  words  of  Christ 
is  in  this  formal  advice :  "...  Neither  gaze  with 
curiosity  upon  the  face  or  apparel  of  higher  persons, 
still  less  upon  women,  and  least  of  all  on  married 
women ;  because  the  proverb  says  that  he  who  looks 
intently  at  a  woman  commits  adultery  with  his  eyes."  * 

The  Mexicans  prayed  thus  at  the  accession  of  a  new 
ruler,  and  spoke  to  Tezcatlipoca,  their  principal  deity  : 
"  To-day  the  sun  has  risen  upon  us,  warming  us ;  to 
us  has  been  given  a  glittering  axe  to  rule  and  govern 
our  nation,  has  been  given  a  man  to  take  upon  his 
shoulders  the  affairs  and  troubles  of  the  state.  He  is 
to  possess  thy  throne  and  seat,  having  and  holding  the 
same  in  thy  name  and  person  some  few  days.  O  Lord, 
we  marvel  that  thou  hast,  indeed,  set  thine  eyes  on  this 


^  Sahagun,  Historia  General  de 
las  Cosaa  de  Nueva  Espafia,  lib.  vi.  ; 
Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  439. 

*  Sahagun,    Hist.    Gen.,  lib.  vi. 


cap.  i.,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  68,  n.  13. 

'  Ibid.,  cap.  ii. 

*Ibid.,  cap.  xvii. 

'  Ibid.,  cap.  xxii.  ;  Matt.  v.  28. 


■^,- 


BAPTIHM    AND    EUCHAKIST    IN    ANCIENT    AMKRICA.      459 

mail,  rude  and  of  little  knowledge,  to  make  him  for 
some  days,  for  some  little  time,  the  governor  of  this 
state,  nation,  province,  and  kingdom.  It  may  be  that 
he  will  fill  this  office  defectively ;  perhaps  he  will  lose 
his  office  through  his  childishness,  or  it  will  happen 
through  his  carelessness  and  laziness ;  or,  perhaps,  his 
arrogance  and  the  secret  boasting  of  his  thoughts  will 
destroy  him.  Since  this  poor  man  is  put  in  this  risk 
and  peril,  we  supplicate  thee,  who  art  our  Lord,  our 
invisible  and  impalpable  protector,  under  whose  will 
and  pleasure  we  are,  who  alone  disposes  of,  and  provides 
for,  all,  we  supplicate  thee  that  thou  see  good  to  deal 
mercifully  with  him.  Deign  to  provide  him  with  thy 
light,  that  he  may  know  what  he  has  to  think,  what  he 
has  to  do,  and  the  road  that  he  has  to  follow,  so  as  to 
commit  no  error  in  his  office  contrary  to  thy  disposition 
and  will.  Thou  knowest  what  is  to  happen  to  him  in 
this  office  both  by  day  and  night.  If  this  ruler-elect 
of  ours  do  evil,  with  which  to  provo-ie  thine  ire  and 
indignation  and  to  awaken  thy  chastisement  against 
himself,  it  will  not  be  of  his  own  will  or  seeking,  but 
by  thy  permission  or  by  some  impulse  from  without ; 
for  which  we  entreat  thee  to  see  good  to  open  his  eyes, 
to  give  him  light ;  open  also  his  ears  and  guide  him, 
not  so  much  for  his  own  sake  as  for  that  of  those  whom 
he  has  to  rule  over  and  carry  on  his  shoulders.  We 
supplicate  thee  that  now,  from  the  beginning,  thou 
inspire  what  he  is  to  conceive  in  his  heart  and  show 
him  the  road  he  is  to  follow,  inasmuch  as  thou  hast 
made  of  him  a  seat  on  which  to  seat  thyself ;  and  also, 
as  it  were,  a  flute  that,  being  played  upon,  may  signify 
thy  will.  Make  him,  O  Lord,  a  faithful  image  of 
thyself,  and  permit  not  that  in  thy  throne  and  hall  he 
make  himself  proud  and  haughty  ;  but  rather  see  good, 
O  Lord,  that  quietly  and  prudently  he  rule  and  govern 


f  II 


1 


400       11I8TORY    OF   AMKUICA    BEFORE   COLUMUUH. 


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those  in  his  charge,  who  arc  common  people  ;  do  not 
permit  him  to  insult  and  opi)re8s  his  subjects,  nor  to 
give  over,  without  reason,  any  of  them  to  destruction. 
Permit  it  not,  ()  Lord,  that  the  decorations,  badges, 
and  ornaments,  which  he  already  wears,  be  to  him  a 
cause  of  pride  and  presumption,  but  rather  that  he 
serve  thee  with  humility  and  plainness.  May  it  please 
thee,  O  our  Lord,  most  clement,  that  he  rule  and  gov- 
ern this  thy  seignory,  whicli  thou  hast  committed  to 
him,  with  all  prudence  and  wisdom.  May  it  please 
thee  that  he  do  nothing  wrong  or  to  thine  offence ; 
deign  to  walk  with  him  and  direct  him  in  all  his  ways. 
But  if  thou  wilt  not  do  this,  ordain  that  from  this  day 
henceforth  he  be  abhorred  and  disliked,  and  that  he 
die  in  war  at  the  hands  of  his  enemies."  ^ 

The  reader  has  undoubtedly  noticed  already  the  lofty 
Christian  thoughts  that  pervade  this  beautiful  prayer, 
and  so  clearly  set  forth  the  divine  origin  of  uil  power 
and  authority,  as  well  as  the  responsibility  of  a  ruler 
before  God's  tribunal.  The  doctrine  of  actual  grace 
and  of  the  benevolent  co-operation  of  divine  Providence 
could  hardly  be  more  strongly  expressed.  The  words 
of  our  Lord,  "  I  am  the  way,  and  the  truth,  and  the 
life,"  ■^  seem  to  re-echo  in  this  prayer,  which  further 
indicates  that  the  people  who  recited  it  had  heard  of 
the  encouraging  statement  of  Moses,  verified  nowhere 
as  it  is  in  the  Catholic  Church  :  "  Neither  is  there  any 
nation  so  great,  that  hath  gods  so  nigh  them,  as  our 
God  is  present  to  all  our  petitions."  ^  To  find  the  like 
of  the  salutary  admonitions  here  given  to  the  new  ruler, 
we  must  turn  to  the  solemn  ceremonies  on  the  occasion 
of  a  pope's  coronation  or  of  the  consecration  of  a  king. 


I 
[till 


'  Sahaguii,  Historia  General  de 
las  Cosas  de  Nueva  Espafia,  lib.  vi. , 
ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  210,  seq. 


^  St.  John  xiv.  6. 
'  ^   uc.  iv.  7. 


^il 


BAl'TIBM   AND   EUCHARI8T    IN   ANCIENT    AMEUICA.     461 


This  prayer  may  suffice  to  give  us  an  idea  of  the 
numerouH  literary  compositions  that  played  such  au 
important  part  on  all  solemn  occasions  with  the  natives 
of  New  Hpain.  They  all  are  replete  with  such  pure 
and  grand  ideas  as  evidently  bear  the  impress  of  Chris- 
tian teaching.  The  same  must  be  said  of  the  Mexican 
formularies  destined  for  use  in  private  life,  a  sample  of 
which  is  the  grave  advice  of  an  Aztec  mother  to  her 
grown-up  daughter,  which  we  copy  from  Sahagun : 

"  My  beloved  daughter,  very  dear  little  dove,  you 
have  already  heard,  and  attended  to,  the  words  which 
your  father  has  spoken  to  you.  What  more  can  you 
hear  than  what  you  have  heard  from  your  lord  and 
father,  who  has  fully  told  you  what  is  becoming  for 
you  to  do  and  to  avoid  ?  Nevertheless,  that  I  may  do 
my  whole  duty  towards  you,  I  will  say  to  you  some  few 
words.  The  first  thing  that  I  earnestly  charge  upon 
you  is,  that  you  observe  and  do  not  forget  what  your 
father  has  now  told  you,  since  it  is  all  very  precious  ; 
and  persons  of  hia  condition  rarely  publish  such  things ; 
for  they  are  the  words  which  belong  to  the  noble  and 
wise,  valuable  as  rich  jewels.  See,  then,  that  you  take 
them  and  lay  them  up  in  your  heart,  and  write  them 
in  your  bowels.  If  God  gives  you  life,  with  the  same 
words  will  you  teach  your  sons  and  daughters,  if  God 
shall  give  them  to  you.  Take  care  that  your  garments 
are  such  as  are  decent  and  proper ;  and  observe  that 
you  do  not  adorn  yourself  with  much  finery,  since  this 
is  a  mark  of  vanity  and  folly.  As  little  becoming  is  it, 
that  your  dress  should  be  very  mean,  dirty,  or  ragged ; 
since  rags  are  a  mark  of  the  low,  and  of  those  who  are 
held  in  contempt.  Let  your  clothes  be  becoming  and 
neat,  that  you  may  neither  appear  fantastic  nor  mean. 
When  you  speak,  do  not  hurry  your  words  from  un- 
easiness, but  speak  deliberately  and  calmly.     Do  not 


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462       HI8T0RY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORP]   COLUMBUS. 

raise  your  voice  very  high,  nor  speak  very  low,  but  in 
a  moderate  tone.  Neither  mince  when  you  speak,  nor 
when  you  salute,  nor  speak  through  your  nose ;  but  let 
your  words  be  proper,  of  a  good  sound,  and  your  voice 
^?ntle.  Do  not  be  nice  in  the  choice  of  your  words. 
In  walki  ig,  my  daughter,  see  that  you  behave  becom- 
ingly, neii,ner  going  with  haste,  nor  too  slowly,  since 
it  is  an  evidence  of  being  puffed  up  to  walk  too  slowly, 
and  walking  hastily  causes  a  vicious  habit  of  restless- 
ness and  instability.  Therefore,  neither  walk  very  fast 
nor  very  slowly  ;  yet,  when  it  shall  be  necessary  to  go 
with  haste,  do  so ;  in  this,  use  your  discretion.  And 
wh'^.^i  you  may  be  obliged  to  jump  over  a  pool  of  water, 
do  it  with  decency,  that  you  may  neither  appear  clumsy 
nor  light.  When  you  are  in  the  street,  do  not  carry 
your  head  much  inclined,  or  your  body  bent,  nor  go 
with  your  head  very  much  raised,  since  it  is  a  mark  of 
ill  breeding ;  walk  erect  and  with  your  head  slightly 
inclined.  Do  not  have  your  mouth  covered,  or  your 
face,  from  shame,  nor  go  looking  like  a  near-sighted 
person,  nor,  on  your  way,  make  fantastic  movements 
with  your  feet.  Walk  through  the  street  quietly  and 
with  propriety.  Another  thing  that  you  must  attend 
to,  my  daughter,  is  that,  when  you  are  in  the  street, 
you  do  not  go  looking  hither  and  thither,  nor  turning 
your  head  to  look  at  this  and  that ;  walk  neither  look- 
ing at  the  skies  nor  on  the  ground.  Do  not  look  upon 
those  whom  you  meet  with  the  eyes  of  an  offended 
person  ;  nor  have  the  appearance  of  being  uneasy,  but 
of  one  who  looks  upon  all  with  a  serene  countenance. 
Doing  this,  you  will  give  no  one  occasion  of  being 
offended  with  you.  *Sliow  a  becoming  countenance, 
that  you  may  neither  appear  morose,  nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  too  complaisant.  See,  my  daughter,  that  you 
give  yourself  no  concern  about  the  words  you  may  hear 


BAPTISM    AND    EUCHARIST    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.     463 


in  going  through  the  street,  nor  pay  any  regard  to  them, 
let  those  who  come  and  go  say  what  they  will.  Take 
care  that  you  neither  answer  nor  speak,  but  act  as  if 
you  neither  heard  nor  understood  them  ;  since,  doing  in 
this  manner,  no  one  will  be  able  to  say  with  truth  that 
you  have  said  anything  amiss.  See,  likewise,  my 
daughter,  that  you  never  paint  your  face,  or  stain  it  or 
your  lips  with  colors,  in  order  to  appear  well,  gince  this 
is  a  mark  of  vile  and  unchaste  women.  Paints  and 
coloring  are  things  which  bad  women  use,  the  immodest, 
who  have  lost  all  shame  and  even  sense,  who  are  like 
fools  and  drunkards,  and  are  called  prostitutes.  But, 
that  your  husband  may  not  dislike  you,  adorn  yourself, 
wash  yourself,  and  cleanse  your  clothes ;  and  let  this 
be  done  with  moderation,  since,  if  you  wash  yourself 
and  your  clothes  every  day,  it  will  be  said  of  you  that 
you  are  over-nice,  too  delicate.  My  daughter,  this  is 
the  course  you  are  to  take,  since  in  this  manner  the 
ancestors  from  whom  you  spring  brought  us  up.  Those 
noble  and  venerable  dames,  your  grandmothers,  told  us 
not  so  many  things  as  I  have  told  you ;  they  said  but 
few  words,  and  spoke  thus  :  *  Listen,  my  daughters ;  in 
this  world  it  is  necessary  to  live  with  much  prudence 
and  circumspection.  Hear  this  allegory,  which  I  shall 
now  tell  you,  and  preserve  it,  and  take  from  it  a  warn- 
ing and  example  for  living  aright.  Here,  in  tliis  world, 
we  travel  by  a  very  narrow,  steep,  and  dangerous  road, 
which  is  as  a  lofty  mountain  ridge,  on  whose  top  passes 
a  narrow  path ;  on  either  iide  is  a  great  gulf  without 
bottom ;  and  when  you  deviate  from  the  path  you  fall 
into  it.  There  is  need,  therefore,  of  much  discretion  in 
pursuing  the  road.'  My  tenderly  loved  daughter,  my 
little  dove,  keep  this  illustration  in  your  heart,  and  see 
that  you  do  not  forget  it ;  it  will  be  to  you  as  a  lamp 
and  a  beacon  so  long  as  you  shall  live  in  this  world. 


r, 


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464       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Only  one  thing  remains  to  be  said,  and  I  have  done. 
If  God  shall  give  you  life,  if  you  shall  continue  some 
years  upon  the  earth,  see  that  you  guard  yourself  care- 
fully, that  no  stain  come  upon  you ;  should  you  forfeit 
your  chastity  and  afterwards  be  asked  in  marriage  and 
should  marry  any  one,  you  will  never  be  fortunate,  nor 
have  true  love ;  he  will  always  remember  that  you 
were  not  a  virgin,  and  this  will  be  the  cause  of  great 
affliction  and  distress ;  you  will  never  be  at  peace,  for 
your  husband  will  always  be  suspicious  of  you.  O  my 
dearly  beloved  daughter,  if  you  shall  live  upon  the 
earth,  see  that  not  more  than  one  man  approach  you, 
and  observe  what  I  now  shall  tell  you,  as  a  strict  com- 
mand. When  it  shall  please  God  that  you  receive  a 
husband,  and  you  are  placed  under  his  authority,  be 
free  from  arrogance ;  see  that  you  do  not  neglect  him, 
nor  allow  your  heart  to  be  in  opposition  to  him ;  be 
not  disrespectful  to  him.  Beware  that  at  no  time  or 
place  you  commit  against  him  the  treason  called  adul- 
tery. See  that  you  give  no  favor  to  another,  since  this, 
my  dear  and  much-loved  daughter,  is  to  fall  into  a  pit 
without  bottom,  from  which  there  is  no  escape.  Accord- 
ing to  the  custom  of  the  world,  if  it  shall  be  known,  for 
this  crime  they  will  kill  you,  they  will  throw  you  into 
the  street,  for  an  example  to  all  the  people,  where  your 
head  will  be  crushed  and  dragged  upon  the  ground.  Of 
these  a  proverb  says,  *  You  will  be  stoned  and  dragged 
upon  the  earth,  and  others  will  take  warning  at  your 
death.'  ^  From  this  will  arise  a  stain  and  dishonor  upon 
our  ancestors,  the  nobles  and  senators  from  whom  we 
are  descended.  You  will  tarnish  their  illustrious  fame 
and  their  glory  by  the  filthiness  and  impurity  of  your 
sin.      You  will,  likewise,  lose  your  reputation,  your 

'  Cf.  Deut.  xxii.  22 ;  Levit.  xx.  10 ;  St.  John  viii.  7. 


T 


:il  ,r 


L.APTISM    AND    1.    CHARIST    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.     465 

nobility,  and  honor  of  birth ;  your  name  will  be  for- 
gotten or  abhorred ;  of  you  will  it  be  said  that  you 
were  buried  in  the  dust  of  your  sins.  And  remember, 
my  daughter,  that  though  no  man  shall  see  you,  nor 
your  husband  e\er  know  what  happens,  God,  who  is 
in  every  place,  sees  you ;  ^  he  will  be  angry  with  you, 
will  excite  the  indignation  of  the  people  against  you, 
and  will  be  avenged  upon  you  as  he  shall  see  fit.  By 
his  command  you  shall  be  either  maimed,  or  struck 
blind,  or  your  body  shall  wither,  or  you  shall  come  to 
extreme  poverty,  for  daring  to  injure  your  husband. 
Or,  perhaps,  he  will  deliver  you  up  to  death,  and  put 
you  under  his  feet,  sending  you  to  a  place  of  torment. 
Our  Lord  is  compassionate ;  but,  if  you  commit  treason 
against  your  husband,  God,  who  is  in  every  place,  will 
take  vengeance  on  your  sin,  and  will  permit  you  to 
have  neither  contentment,  nor  repose,  nor  a  peaceful 
life ;  and  he  will  excite  your  husband  to  be  always 
unkind  towards  you,  and  always  to  speak  to  you  with 
anger.  My  dear  daughter,  whom  I  tenderly  love,  see 
that  you  live  in  the  world  in  peace,  tranquillity,  and 
contentment,  all  the  days  that  you  shall  live.  See  that 
you  disgrace  not  yourself,  that  you  stain  not  your 
honor,  nor  pollute  the  lustre  and  fame  of  your  ances- 
tors ;  see  that  you  honor  me  and  your  father  and  reflect 
glory  on  us  by  your  good  life.  May  God  prosper 
you,  my  first-born,  and  may  you  come  to  God,  who  is 
in  every  place."  ^ 

The  religious  ceremonies  and  laws  observed  by  the 
civilized  natives  of  America  still  more  clearly  point 
to  the  fact  of  prehistoric  Christianity  on  our  conti- 
nent. 

If  we  except  the  baptism  of  penance  administered 


1  Cf.  Eccl.  xxiii.  25,  27,  28. 
'  Siihagnn,  lib.  vi.  cap.  xix.,  ap. 
I.— 30 


Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
iii.  p.  405. 


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466       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

by  the  precursor  of  our  Lord/  and  the  Jewish  legal 
ceremony  in  admitting  proselytes  from  gentile  circum- 
cised nations,^  the  sacrament  of  baptism  is  so  exclusively 
peculiar  to  the  Christian  dispensation,  that  we  could 
hardly  surmise  its  administration  in  our  western  hemi- 
sphere before  the  arrival  of  Christian  missionaries  after 
Columbus's  discovery.  These  missionaries,  however, 
and  other  writers  of  that  time  assure  us  that  baptism — to 
all  intents  the  sacrament  of  baptism — was  administered 
in  several  American  districts  from  time  immemorial. 

Herrera  evidently  mistakes  when  he  asserts  that  this 
religious  rite  was  practised  in  Yucatan  only.^  The 
new-born  infants  of  the  Canary  Islands  were  baptized 
by  women,  who  poured  water  on  their  heads,  whilst 
pronouncing  a  certain  form  of  words,*  as  it  was  done 
in  Yucatan.  The  Caribbean  islanders  and  the  Penn- 
sylvania continentals  of  old  used  to  solemnly  plunge 
their  babes  into  cold  water  in  the  presence  of  two 
witnesses, — a  man  and  a  woman, — and  gave  them  a 
name  on  that  occasion.*  Baptism  was  conferred  in 
the  territories  of  Cempoala,  Tezcuco,  Tlacopan,  and 
throughout  the  vast  empire  of  Mexico."  Gleeson  adds,^ 
with  less  evidence,  that  the  sacred  rite  was  also  per- 
formed in  South  America ;  but  it  is  certain  that  in  no 
place  was  it  more  universally  admitted  than  in  Central 
American  countries.  Sahagun  ^  Avrites  that  when  the 
holy  bishop  of  Chiapa  arrived  at  Campeche,  in  the 
year  1544,  on  his  way  to  his  diocese,  in  company  with 


^  St.  Mark  i.  4 ;  St.  Luke  iii.  3  ; 
Acta  xiii.  24. 

*  Kastner,  p.  70,  ret",  to  Disserta- 
tion sur  le  Bapt^tne  des  Juifs,  clans 
la  Sainte  Bible,  avec  des  notes 
tiroes  du  Coninientaire  de  D.  An- 
giistin  Calmet,  xix.  239. 

'  Hornins,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35. 

*  Ibid.,  lib.  ii.  cap.  xiii.  p.  128. 


^  Kastner,  p.  72. 

*  Hornins,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  .35  ; 
Acostiv,  bk.  V.  cli.  xxvii.  p.  369  ; 
Short,  p.  4{)2,  ref.  to  Kingsbo rough, 
Alex.  Antiq.,  t.  vi.  p.  45;  Gaffarel, 
t.  i.  p.  438 ;  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  14(5. 

'  Vol.  i.  p.  146. 

"  Lib.  i.  cap.  iii. 


BAPTISM    AND    EUCHARIST    IN   ANCIENT    AMERICA.     467 


several  Dominican  friars,  he  not  only  saw  what  Montejo 
had  written  about  tlie  baptism  of  the  Yucatecs,  but 
also  learned  that  all  the  natives  of  that  country  were 
baptized,  no  one  being  allowed  to  marry  before  the 
sacred  ceremonies  had  been  performed  on  him.^  It 
was  the  duty  of  all  the  Mayas  to  have  their  children 
baptized,  for  they  believed  that  by  this  ablution  they 
received  a  purer  nature,  were  protected  against  evil 
spirits  and  possible  misfortunes.  They  held,  moreover, 
that  an  unbaptized  person,  whether  man  or  woman, 
could  not  lead  a  good  life  nor  do  anything  well.^ 

Baptism  was  in  the  Mexican  empire  &.  religious  cere- 
mony,^ which  in  Yucatan  was  called  "  Zihil,"  signify- 
ing to  be  born  again ;  *  and  the  Nahua  nations  freely 
admitted  that  it  would  cleanse  the  soul  from  all  sin,  as 
will  soon  appear  from  the  ceremonies  with  which  it  was 
administered. 

The  American  aborigines  seem  to  have  been  aware 
of  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  sacrament  of  baptism 
to  eternal  salvation,^  for  to  many  of  them  it  was,  in 
spite  of  the  Christian  law,  administered  twice,'' — first 
privately,  immediately  on  the  birth  of  the  infant,  and 
afterwards  publicly,  in  the  presence  of  friends  and 
relatives.^     The  second   lustration  usually  took   place 


I 


It  ^1 


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1  tA 


\(  '• 


!  f.i 


'  Sahagun,  lib.  i.  p.  xx  ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  ii.  p.  ()()!),  ref.  to  Veytia, 
Hist.  Ant.  Mej.,  t.  i.  p.  183 ;  Cogol- 
ludo,  Hist.  Ync,  p.  191;  Juarros, 
Hist.  Gnat.,  p.  19(4. 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  ()H2. 

'  Short,  p.  402,  ref.  to  KingH- 
boroiigh,  Mex.  Antiq.,  t.  vi.  p.  45. 

*  Horning,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  o5 ; 
Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  78(1,  n.  2,  ref.  to 
Landa,  who  siiys,  "  Con  vocablo 
que  quiere  decir  :  Nacer  de  nnovo 
6  otra  vez ;"  Short,  p.  4()2,  ref.  to 
Kingsborongh,  Mex.  Antiq.,  t.  vi. 


p.  414  ;  t.  viii.  p.  18  ;  Sahagun,  lib. 
i.  cap.  iii.,  who  states:  "  Dando 
al  bautisnio  el  nouibre  de  Reni^s- 
cencia,  conio  Jesncristo  le  llama  en 
el  Evangelio :  '  Nisi  quis  renatus 
fnerit,'  "  etc.     (St.  John  iii.  5. ) 

^  "  Amen,  amen,  I  say  to  thee : 
unless  a  man  be  born  again  of 
water  and  the  Holy-Ghost,  he 
cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
God."     (St.  John  iii.  5. ) 

«  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  270-272. 

'  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  148. 


■ 


468       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

on  the  fifth  day  after  birth ;  but  in  every  case  the 
astrologers  and  diviners  were  consulted,  and,  if  the 
signs  were  not  propitious,  baptism  was  postponed  till  a 
day  of  good  augury  would  come/  Thus  did  it  happen 
that  the  priests  of  Cempoala  waited  sometimes  a  whole 
year  before  pouring  water  on  the  children's  heads  and 
mumbling  an  unintelligible  formula  of  baptism.^  The 
children  of  Yucatan  were  generally  baptized  when 
three  years  old ;  or,  as  Bancroft  states,  the  rite  was 
administered  to  children  of  both  sexes  at  any  time 
between  the  ages  of  three  and  twelve  years.^ 

Older  children,  however,  were  to  prepare  for  the 
ceremony  by  a  confession  of  their  sins,  as  were  the 
Christian  neophytes  of  old  and  are  yet  our  modern 
converts  who  have  received  a  doubtful  baptism.*  The 
importance  of  the  sacred  rite  was  illustrated  by  the 
duty  imposed  upon  the  very  parents,  to  fast  and  abstain 
from  carnal  indulgence  for  three  days  before  the  bap- 
tism of  their  children  and  a  whole  week  after  it.^ 

There  were  other  preparations  of  a  purely  pagan 
order :  the  portals  of  the  dwelling  were  decorated  with 
green  branches,  flowers  and  sweet-smelling  herbs  were 
scattered  over  the  floors  and  court-yard,  and  the  ap- 
proaches to  the  house  were  carefully  swept ;  cakes  were 
baked,  maize  and  cacao  ground,  and  delicacies  of  every 
description  prepared  for  the  table  ;  nor  were  the  liquors 
forgotten,  for  any  shortcoming  in  this  respect  would 
reflect  severely  on  the  hospitality  of  the  host. 

When  the  great  day  had  come  and  all  was  ready. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  371 ;  von 
Humboldt,  Vuea  des  CordilltJres, 
t.  ii.  p.  311 ;  Kastner,  p.  68. 

^  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35, 
ref.  to  Peter  Martyr. 

'  Hornius,  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p. 
278 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  682. 


*  Sahagun,  Historia  General  de 
las  Cosaa  de  Nueva  Ejjpafia,  t.  i. 
p.  iii ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  ]>.  683. 

'  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35 ; 
lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p.  278 ;  Sahagun, 
Historia  de  las  Cosae  de  Nueva 
Espafia,  t.  i.  p.  iii. 


BAPTISM    AND    EUCHARIST   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.     469 

the  relatives  of  the  family  assembled  before  sunrise, 
and  other  friends  dropped  in  as  the  day  advanced ; 
each,  as  he  con{!;ratulated  the  host,  presented  a  gift  of 
clothing  for  the  infant  and  received  in  turn  a  present 
of  mantles,  flowers,  and  of  choice  food.  In  the  course 
of  the  morning  the  midwife  carried  the  ch'  1  to  the 
court-yard  and  i)laced  it  upon  a  heap  of  leaves,  beside 
which  was  set  an  earthenware  vessel  filled  with  clear 
water,  and  several  miniature  implements,  insignia  of 
the  father's  trade  or  profession.  If  he  was  a  noble  or 
a  warrior,  the  articles  consisted  of  a  small  shield  and  a 
bow,  with  arrows  of  a  corresponding  size  placed  with 
their  heads  directed  towards  the  four  cardinal  points. 
Another  set  of  arms  made  from  dough  of  amaranth- 
seed  and  bound  together  with  the  dried  navel-string 
of  the  infant  was  also  at  hand.  If  the  child  was  a 
girl,  there  were  placed  beside  it,  instead  of  the  little 
weapons,  a  spindle  and  distaff  and  some  articles  of 
girl's  clothing.^  The  midwife,  who  was  the  minister 
of  baptism,  was  then  ready  to  perform  the  religious 
functions. 

Such  were  the  preparations  for  the  sacred  rite  among 
the  Nahua  tribes.  The  Mayas  of  Yucatan  prepared 
for  it  in  a  different  manner.  When  parents  desired  to 
have  their  children  baptized  they  notified  the  priest 
who  was  to  perform  the  ceremony.  The  latter  then 
published  throughout  the  town  a  notice  of  the  day  on 
which  the  rite  would  take  place,  being  careful  to  fix 
upon  a  day  of  good  omen.  This  done,  the  fathers  of 
the  children  who  were  to  be  baptized  selected  five  of 
the  most  honored  men  of  the  town  to  assist  the  priest 


*  Von  Humboldt,  Vues  des  Cor-  p.  870,  n.  26 :  all  copying  Torque- 

dill^res,  t.  ii.  p.  311 ;  Kastner,  p.  mada,  t.  ii.  p.  457,  and  Sahagini, 

()9 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  272 ;  Free-  Historia   General   de  lae  Cosas  de 

cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  Nueva  Espafla,  t.  i.  lib.  iv. 


470       HISTOEY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   (^OLUMBUS. 


'     1 

■M" 

1'  -:■: 

f  1 

Y  I 


i. 


is- 


?5* 


-    y  ■  f-a 


during  the  ceremony.  When  the  appointed  day  arrived, 
all  assembled  with  the  children  to  be  baptized  in  the 
house  of  the  giver  of  the  feast,  who  was  usually  one  of 
the  wealthiest  of  the  parents.  Fresh  leaves  were  strewn 
in  the  court-yard,  and  there  the  boys  were  ranged  in 
a  row  in  charge  of  their  godfathers,  while  in  another 
line  were  the  girls  with  their  godmothers.  The  cere- 
monies then  commenced  with  the  exorcisms.  The 
priest,  namely,  proceeded  to  purify  the  house,  and  then 
to  cast  out  the  devil.  For  this  purpose  four  benches 
were  placed,  one  in  each  of  the  four  corners  of  the 
court-yard,  and  upon  them  were  seated  four  of  the  as- 
sistants, holding  a  long  cord  that  passed  from  one  to  an- 
other and  thus  enclosed  a  portion  of  the  yard.  Within 
this  enclosure  were  the  children  and  those  fathers  and 
officials  who  had  fasted.  A  bench  was  placed  in  the 
centre,  upon  which  the  priest  was  seated,  with  a  brazier, 
some  ground  corn,  and  incense.  The  children  were 
directed  to  approach  one  by  one,  and  the  priest  gave  to 
each  a  little  of  the  ground  corn  and  incense,  which,  as 
they  received  it,  they  cast  into  the  brazier.  When  this 
had  been  done  by  all,  they  took  the  cord  and  brazier 
and  a  vessel  of  wine,  and  gave  them  to  a  man  to  carry 
them  outside  the  town,  with  injunctions  not  to  drink 
any  of  the  wine  and  not  to  look  behind  him.  With 
such  ceremony  the  devil  was  expelled.^ 

The  Mexican  midwife  changed  the  order  of  the 
modern  ritual  by  placing  the  exorcisms  after  the  bap- 
tism proper ;  but  her  way  of  performing  them  was 
better  in  accord  with  the  Christian  form.  Washing 
the  body  of  the  child,  she  exclaimed,  "  Whencesoever 
thou  comest,  thou  that  art  hurtful  to  this  child,  leave 
him  and  depart  from  him,  for  he  now  liveth  anew  and 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  G83,  ref.  to     183 ;  Herrera,  Hist.  Gen.,  dec.  iv. 
Ve-     1     Hist.   Ant.   Mej.,   t.  i.  p.     lib.  x.  cap.  iv. 


BAPTIHM    AND    EUCHARI8T    IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.     471 

is  born  anew ;  now  he  is  purified  and  cleansed  afresh, 
and  our  mother  Chalchiuitlicue  again  bringeth  him 
into  the  world.  Evil  one,  wheresoever  thou  art,  be- 
gone, avaunt !"  ^ 

Tlie  sacred  rite  commenced  at  the  rising  of  the  sun, 
whcii  the  midwife,  addressing  the  infant,  said,  "  O  eagle, 
O  tiger,  O  brave  little  man  and  grandson  of  mine,  thou 
hast  been  brought  into  the  world  by  thy  father  and 
mother,  the  great  lord  and  the  great  lady.  Thou  wast 
created  in  that  house  which  is  the  abode  of  the  supveme 
gods  that  are  above  the  nine  heavens.  Thou  art  a  gift 
from  our  son  Quetzalcoatl,  the  omnipresent ;  be  joined 
to  thy  mother,  Chalchiuitlicue,  the  goddess  of  water." 
Then,  imitating  the  various  unctions  prescribed  by  the 
Christian  ritual,  she  placed  her  dripping  fingers  on  the 
lips  of  the  child,  saying,  "  Take  this,  for  upon  it  thou 
hast  to  live,  to  wax  strong,  and  to  flourish ;  by  it  we 
obtain  all  necessary  things  ;  take  it."  Then,  touching 
the  child  on  its  breast  with  her  moistened  fingers,  she 
said,  "  Take  this  holy  and  pure  water,  that  thine  heart 
may  be  cleansed."  In  the  same  manner  she  touched 
the  crown  of  its  head. 

After  these  preliminaries  the  essential  rite  was  ad- 
ministered. The  midwife  poured  water  on  the  child's 
head,  saying,  "  Receive,  O  my  child,  the  water  of  the 
Lord  of  the  world,  which  is  our  life,  and  is  given  for 
the  increasing  and  renewing  of  our  body.  It  is  to  wash 
and  to  purify.  I  pray  that  these  heavenly  drojDS  may 
enter  into  thy  body  and  dwell  there ;  that  they  may 
destroy  and  remove  from  thee  all  the  evil  and  sin  which 
was  given  to  thee  before  the  beginning  of  the  world ; 
since  all  of  us  are  under  its  power,  being  all  the  chil- 


.    1 


*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  140  ;  Preacott,  referring  to  Sahagun,  Historiu  Gen- 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii.  p.  370,  eral  de  las  Cosas  de  Nueva  Espafla, 
n.  26 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  273 :  all     t.  ii.  lib.  vi.  cap.  37. 


gl<IWALIU. .  .UUJAI-LJiL  111 


mm 


472       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


1^1^? 


dren  of  Chalchiuitlicue."  ^  Besides  this,  Bancroft'* 
gives  another,  slightly  different,  reading  of  the  Mexi- 
can formula  of  baptism  and  of  the  washing.  "  Then 
the  midwife,"  he  writes,  "  dipped  the  child  into  water 
and  said,  *  Enter,  my  son,  into  the  water ;  let  it  wash 
thee ;  let  him  cleanse  thee  who  is  in  every  place ;  let 
him  see  good  to  put  away  from  thee  all  the  evil  that 
thou  hast  carried  with  thee  since  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  the  evil  that  thy  father  and  thy  mother  have 
joined  to  thee.'  "  Other  variations  occurred  in  the  sac- 
ramental essentials.  Peter  Martyr  relates  that  the 
priests  of  Cempoala  poured  the  water  from  a  small  vase 
upon  the  heads  of  those  to  be  baptised  in  the  form  of  a 
cross,^  while  they  pronounced  an  unintelligible  formula, 
as  remarked  before.  In  Yucatan,  on  the  contrary,  bap- 
tism was  administered  by  aspersion.  The  priest  held 
in  his  hand  some  hyssop,  fastened  to  a  short  stick  ;  he 
blessed  the  children  and,  offering  up  some  prayers, 
purified  them  with  the  hyssop,  with  much  solemnity. 
Sahagun  adds*  that  the  aspersion  was  made  under  the 
invocation  of  the  Blessed  Trinity,  of  which,  he  says, 
they  had  an  accurate  knowledge.^ 

The  final  unction  with  chrism  according  to  our  ritual 
was  represented  by  the  principal  officer  who  had  been 
elected  by  the  fathers,  and  who  now  took  a  bone,  which 
he  dipped  in  a  certain  water  and  with  which  he  moist- 
ened the  foreheads,  faces,  fingers,  and  toes  of  the  neo- 
phytes.** 

Not  even  the  ceremonies  of  the  imposition  of  the 


M 

•  Lancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  273  ;  Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  iii. 
p.  370,  ref.  to  Sahagun,  Historia 
General  de  las  Cosas  de  Nueva  Es- 
pafla,  lib.  vi.  cap.  37  ;  Gleeson,  vol. 
i.  p.  149,  ref.  to  Clavigero,  History 
of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  317. 


*  Vol.  iii.  p.  371. 

'  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35. 

*  Historia  General   de  las  Cosas 
de  Nueva  Espafia,  t.  i.  p.  xx. 

*  Supra,  p.  372. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  684,  ref.  to 
Landa,  Relacion,  p.  150. 


BAPTISM    AND   EUCHARIST   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.     473 

white  cloth  and  the  giving  of  the  burning  candle  were 
neglected  by  the  American  aborigines.*  The  peculiar 
circumstance  of  imposing  a  name  upon  the  children  on 
the  occasion  of  their  baptism  was  observed  everywhere. 

The  ceremonies  of  baptism  ended  in  the  banquet- 
room,  where  all  present  seated  themselves  according  to 
age  and  rank ;  and  the  eating  and  drinking  festivities 
lasted  twenty  days,  or  even  longer  if  the  father  was 
wealthy.^ 

Of  the  Christian  sacrament  of  confirmation  no  special 
traces  are  to  be  found  in  ancient  America,  unless  some 
one  would  consider  as  such  the  religious  ceremonies 
with  which  the  foreheads  of  the  Yucatecs  were  anointed 
by  their  priests.'* 

The  Holy  Eucharist,  on  the  contrary,  is  vividly  re- 
called to  the  mind  of  a  Christian  by  remarkable  re- 
ligious ceremonies  in  both  American  continents.  The 
reader  will  notice  the  important  essential  differences 
between  the  ancient  American  and  our  religious  mys- 
teries ;  but  adulterations,  great  as  they  may  be,  should 
not  prevent  us  from  admitting  their  common  origin, 
when  we  consider  that,  only  three  centuries  after  the 
Protestant  coryphei  said  Holy  Mass,  some  of  their  suc- 
cessors celebrate  the  Lord's  Supper  with  pure  water  in 
which  dried  raisins  have  been  soaked  for  twenty-four 
hours. 

Acosta*  has  left  us  a  quaint-  description  of  the  com- 
munion of  the  Peruvians  with  the  sun,  their  great 
visible  god,  and  with  his  son,  their  Inca :  "  In  the  first 
moneth  [June]  they  made  in  Peru  a  most  solemne  feast. 
The  Mamaconas,  which  are  a  kind  of  nunnes  of  the 


•  Bancroft,   vol.  ii.   p.  083 ;   vol.  '  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35  ; 

iii.  p.  375.  lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p.  278. 

'  Sahagiin,  t.  i.  lib.  iv.  ;  Bancroft,  *  Bk.  v.  eh.  xxiii.  p.  346,  355. 
vol.  ii.  p.  276. 


1 
til 


t 
* 


V/i*  I 


474       niHTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMnUS. 

Bunne,  made  little  loaves  of  the  flower  of  mays,  died 
and  mingled  with  the  blood  of  white  sheepe'  which 
they  did  sacrifice  that  day.  Then  presently  they  com- 
manded that  even  all  strangers  should  enter,  who  set 
themselves  in  order ;  and  the  Priests  gave  to  every  one 
a  morcell  of  these  small  loaves,''  saying  unto  them,  that 
they  gave  these  peeces  to  the  end  they  should  be  united 
and  confederate  with  the  Ynca ;  and  that  they  advised 
them  not  to  speake  nor  thinke  any  ill  against  the 
Ynca,  but  alwaies  to  beare  good  affection,  for  that  this 
peece  should  be  a  witness  of  their  intentions  and  will ; 
and  if  they  did  not  as  they  ought,  he  would  discover 
them  and  be  against  them.  Tliey  carried  these  small 
loaves  in  great  platters  of  gold  and  silver  appointed  for 
that  use,  and  all  did  receive  and  eat  these  peeces, 
thanking  the  Sunne  infinitely  for  so  great  a  favour 
which  he  had  done  thorn ;  protesting  that  during  their 
lives  they  would  neither  do  nor  thinke  anything 
against  the  Sunne  nor  the  Ynca :  and  with  this  con- 
dition they  received  this  foode  of  the  Sunne." 

The  same  Acosta  gives  to  the  twenty-fourth  chapter 
of  his  Natural  and  Moral  History  the  title  of  "  In 
what  manner  the  devil  tries  to  counterfeit  in  Mexico 
the  Feast  of  the  Blessed  Sacrament  and  Holy  Com- 
munion." ^ 

Sahugun  rslates,  says  his  commentator,  Dr.  de  Mier,* 
that  the  Mexicans  celebrated  a  Pasch  at  the  same  time 
that  we  celebrate  Easter, — "  in  the  moneth  of  Male," 
says  Acosta,'^  after  a  fast  of  forty  days,  during  which 
they  abstained  from  meat,  wine,    spices,    and  wives. 


*  Of  the  ovis  pudu,  or  of  some 
species  of  llama.  Garcilasso  de  la 
Vega,  however,  states  that  the  flour 
was  mixed  with  the  blood  of  in- 
fants.    (Kastner,  p.  83.) 


'  Blessed    and     consecrated    by 
them.     (Kastner,  p.  82.) 
8  Gaffarel,  D^couv.,  t.  i.  p.  438. 

*  Sahagim,  Hist.  Gener.,  t.  i.  p. 

XX. 

*  Bk,  V.  oh.  xxiv.  p.  356. 


1    r 


^ 


gwi^ 


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4 


A   ' 


BAPTIHM    AND   EUCHARIST   IN    ANCIENT    AMERICA.    475 

After  this,  lustral  water  was  blessed  and  otlier  })repara- 
tions  were  made  for  a  special  feast  of  the  great  god 
Huitziloj)ochtli.^ 

Two  days  before  the  feast  the  young  virgins  of  the 
convent  adjoining  the  temple  ground  a  great  (juantity 
of  ))lite  seed,  together  with  roasted  maize,  the  Mexican 
wheat,  which  they  mixed  into  a  dough  with  black 
honey  from  the  maguey.^  Of  this  dough  they  moulded 
a  statue  of  the  god  e(jual  to  his  permanent  wooden 
effigy,  which  they  then  carried  out  of  their  cloister, 
to  hand  it  over  to  the  young  men  of  the  monastery. 
These  religious,  together  with  the  jn'iests,  marching  in 
procession,  took  the  fragile  statue  up  to  the  temple 
amid  the  sound  of  trumj^ets  and  other  noisy  instru- 
ments. After  this  the  girls  brought  to  the  boys  a 
great  number  of  lumps  of  the  same  dough  fashioned 
into  the  shape  of  human  bones,  which  were  all  laid  at 
the  feet  of,  and  around,  the  paste  statue  of  Huitzilo- 
pochtli.  The  occasion  was  enlivened  with  dancing  and 
music  till  late  in  the  evening.  Vigils  were  kept  all 
night  in  the  temple,  as  by  the  Christians  of  old  and  by 
the  friars  of  later  centuries.  Early  the  following 
morning  throngs  of  people  were  seen  ascending  the 
steps  of  the  pyramidal  teocalli  or  temple,  to  make  their 
oblations  of  maize  and  blite  seed,  and  others  with  the 
human  victims,  whose  blood  was  to  desecrate  the  inno- 
cent offering  of  bread.  When  all  were  gathered  within 
the  spacious  temple-yard,  the  high-priest,  the  other 
priests,  and  their  attendants  sallied  forth,  adorned  with 

'  Gleesoii,  vol.  i.  p.  155,  referring  Salingun,  Hist,  (xener.,  t.  i.  p.  xx  : 

to  Veytia,  Hist.  Antiq.  Mex.,  vol.  "nodeotro"  than  Huitzilopochtli. 

i.  p.  187,  assures  us  that  the  god  "  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  297,  gives 

here  concerned  was  Centcotl,  the  no  authority  for  his  assertion  that 

god  of  corn ;  but  this  statement  is  the  dough  was  kneaded  with  the 

not  sustained  by  the  older  histori-  blood  of  children, 
ans,  and  expre.8sly  contradicted  by 


il 
M    1 


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IIJ. 

li:l 

476       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

their  richest  regalia,  from  their  adjoining  monastery, 
and,  placing  themselves  in  order  about  the  dough 
statue  and  bones,  they  proceeded  with  songs  and  dances 
to  bless  and  consecrate  them,  making  use  of  the  very 
word  "  consecration,"  says  Torqueinada.  From  that 
moment  the  dough  fixtures,  both  statue  and  bones, 
were  considered  by  all  as  the  very  flesh  and  bones  of 
their  god  Huitzilopochtli.^  Acosta  continues  to  relate 
that,  after  this  consecration,  the  same  divine  honors  were 
paid  to  the  paste  image  of  Huitzilopochtli  and  to  the 
circumjacent  bones  as  to  his  wooden  statue  ;  for  "  then 
came  forth  the  sacrificers,"  he  says,  "  who  beganne  the 
sacrifice  of  men,  and  that  day  they  did  sacrifice  a 
greater  number  than  at  any  other  time,  for  that  it  was 
the  most  solemne  feast  they  observed."  After  that 
there  was  a  general  dancing  of  the  virgins  and  of 
everybody  else.^  Soon  a  solemn  procession  was  organ- 
ized through  the  principal  wards  of  the  city  of  Tenoch- 
titlan  or  Mexico  and  the  neighboring  towns,  at  each  of 
which  places  several  men  were  murdered  in  the  usual 
barbarous  way.  A  circumstance  worthy  of  notice  is 
that  the  priest  who  acted  the  main  part  in  this  solemnity 
was  the  representative  of  the  god  Quetzalcoatl.'^ 

All  through  this  day  and  the  following  night  the 
priests  vigilantly  watched  the  dough  statue  of  Huitzi- 
lopochtli, so  that  no  oversight  or  carelessness  should 
interfere  with  the  veneration  and  service  due  to  it. 
Early  the  next  day  they  took  down  the  statue  and  set 
it  on  its  feet  in  a  hall,  where  but  a  few  besides  the  king 
were  admitted.     Then  the  priest,  named  after  Quetzal- 


1  Sahagxm,  Hist.  Gener.,  t.  i.  p. 
XX ;  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxiv.  p. 
356  ;  Duran,  ii.  90 ;  Gleeson,  vol.  i. 
p.  156 ;  Torqiiennula,  lib.  vi.  cap. 
xxxviii.  ;  Aa.  passim. 


of  the  Indies,  bk.  v.  cli.  xxiv.  p. 
359. 

'  Von  Hninboldt,  Vues  des  Cor- 
dill^ree,  t.  i.  p.  352 ;  Kastner,  p. 
81 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  2i)8  ;  Saha- 


The  Natural  and  Moral  History     gun,  Hist.,  Gener.,  t.  i.  p.  xx. 


HH 


.■a;  . 


BAPTISM    AND    EUCHARIST    IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.     477 

coatl,  took  a  dart  tipped  with  flint  and  hurled  it  into 
the  breast  of  the  statue,  which  fell  on  receiving  the 
stroke.  Upon  this  the  priests  advanced  to  the  fallen 
image,  and  one  of  them  pulled  forth  the  heart  and 
gave  it  to  the  king,  and  the  others  divided  the  re- 
mainder into  two  equal  parts  for  the  two  principal  dis- 
tricts of  the  city,  according  to  Torquemada.^  Sahagun, 
however,  the  relation  of  whom  Dr.  de  Mier  prefers  to 
any  other,  states  that  four  deacons,  dressed  in  rochets, 
took  each  one  a  part  of  the  statue  and  of  the  bones  to 
each  of  the  four  wards  of  Mexico,  to  give  a  small  por- 
tion to  every  one  of  the  people  to  eat ;  and  this  was 
called  "  teocuals,"  or  the  god  is  eaten.  "  They  made 
many  peeces,  as  well  of  the  idol  itselve  as  of  the  tron- 
chons  which  were  consecrated,  and  they  gave  them  to 
the  people,  in  manner  of  a  communion,  beginning  with 
the  greater,  and  continuing  unto  the  rest,  both  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  received  it  with  such  teares, 
feare,  and  reverence,  as  it  was  an  admirable  thing ; 
saying  that  they  did  eate  the  flesh  and  bones  of  god : 
wherewith  they  were  grieved.  Such  as  had  any  sicke 
folkes,  demanded  thereof  for  them,  and  carried  it  with 
great  reverence  and  veneration."  The  most  scrupulous 
care  was  taken  that  not  the  least  crumb  should  fall  to 
the  ground. 

Another  striking  analogy  with  the  laws  of  the 
Christian  dispensation  is  that  the  Mexican  communi- 
cants were  obliged  to  observe  the  natural  fast  since  the 
previous  midnight.  As  Acosta  relates,  "  There  was  a 
commandment  very  strictly  observed  throughout  all 
the  land,  that  on  the  day  of  the  feast  of  the  idoll 
Vitziliputzli  they  should  eate  no  other  meate  but  this 
paste  and  honey,  whereof  the  idoll  was  made.     And 

'T.  i.  p.  293;  t.  ii.  pp.  41,  71. 


I 


!  ' 


478       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

this  should  be  eaten  at  the  point  of  day  ;  and  they  should 
drinke  no  water  nor  any  other  thing  till  after  noone : 
they  held  it  for  an  ill  signe,  yea,  for  sacrilege,  to  doe 
the  contrarie."  Sahagun  adds  that  for  this  reason  the 
water  was,  on  that  day,  hid  from  the  little  children, 
who  were  also  admitted  to  partake  of  the  communion.^ 

To  put  aside  all  doubt  as  to  the  significance  of  all 
this,  says  Sahagun,  it  may  suffice  to  remark  that  one 
of  the  special  ceremonies  of  all  this  liturgy  consisted 
in  putting  a  man  on  a  cross,  and  in  striking  with  a 
cane  the  head  of  one  extended  on  another  cross.^  In 
fact,  the  mandate  of  Christ  on  the  eve  of  his  passion — 
"  Do  this  for  a  commemoration  of  me"  ^ — could  hardly 
be  more  faithfully  obeyed. 

In  closing  this  paragraph,  we  shall  remark  that  the 
feast  of  Huitzilopochtli  was  not  the  only  occasion  on 
which  the  Mexicans  practised  the  rite  of  religious 
communion.  They  were  in  the  habit  of  cooking  tiny 
loaves  of  bread  at  several  festivals,  and  of  eating  them, 
as  for  a  communion  with  the  god  of  the  day.  Thus 
did  the  young  men,  during  our  month  of  November, 
eat  the  flesh  of  the  supreme  god  Tezcatlipoca,  under 
the  appearance  of  blessed  bread.*  The  Totonacs  made 
a  dough  of  first-fruits  from  the  temple  garden,  and  of 
the  blood  of  three  infants  sacrificed  at  a  certain  festival. 
Of  this  the  men  above  twenty-five  years  of  age  and 
the  women  above  sixteen  partook  every  six  months. 
As  the  dough  became  stale  it  was  moistened  with  the 
heart's  blood  of  ordinary  victims.^ 


•  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxiv.  p.  35!) ; 
yahagiin,  Hist.  Gen.,  t.  i.  p.  xx ; 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  ^fexico,  vol. 
iii.  p.  3()i»,  ref.  to  Veytia,  Hist. 
Ant.,  lib.  i.  cap.  xviii. 

^  8ahagnn,  Hist.  Gen.,  t.  i.  p.  xx. 

"  St.  Luke  xxii.  19. 


*  Coleccion  de  Docuraentos  in- 
editos  para  la  Historia  de  Espafia, 
t.  liii.  p.  .'524. 

''  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  440,  ref.  to 
Torqnenuida,  Mendieta,  Las  Casas, 
etc. 


a 


BAPTISM    AND    EUCHARIST   IN    ANCIENT   AMERICA.     479 

The  Mexicans  were  compelled  to  prepare  themselves 
for  several  of  their  religious  feasts  by  strict  fasts  and 
abstinences  of  different  kinds,  but  they  were  not  obliged 
to  "  prove  themselves,"  ^  to  purify  their  souls  by  the 
sacrament  of  penance,  before  eating  the  flesh  of  their 
gods,  as  Christians  are,  before  receiving  holy  commu- 
nion. Yet,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  auricular  con- 
fession was  practised  by  them,  as  also  by  several  other 
nations  of  prehistoric  America. 


»  I.  Cor.  xi.  28 ;  II.  Cor.  xiii.  5. 


gMiiai 


'f, 


I      ? 


,    J 

) 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

PENANCE   AND   CONFESSION    IN    MEXICO    AND    PERU. 

As  the  Christians,  so  the  Mexicans  performed  works 
of  penance,  by  fasting  and  by  chastising  and  mortifying 
themselves.  Fasting  was  considered  as  an  atonement 
for  sin,  and  thus  as  a  preparation  for  high  festivals. 
An  ordinary  fast  was  the  abstinence  from  meat  for  a 
period  of  from  one  to  ten  days  and  the  taking  of  but 
one  meal  a  day,  at  noon  ;  at  no  other  hour  could  so  much 
as  a  drop  of  water  be  swallowed.  In  the  "  divine  year" 
a  fast  of  eighty  days  was  observed.  Some  of  the  fasts 
held  by  the  priests  lasted  one  hundred  and  sixty  days ; 
and  owing  to  the  insufficient  food  allowed  and  terrible 
mutilations  practised,  these  long  fasts  not  infrequently 
resulted  fatally  to  the  devotees.  The  high-priest  some- 
times set  a  shining  example  to  his  subordinates  by 
going  into  the  mountains  and  passing  several  months 
there  in  perfect  solitude,  praying,  burning  incense, 
drawing  blood  from  his  body,  and  supporting  life  upon 
uncooked  maize.^  Among  the  Nahua  nations  there 
were  fasts  to  be  observed  by  all  the  people  during 
eighty  consecutive  days,  during  which  nothing  but 
maize  cakes,  without  red  pepper,  were  to  be  eaten,  no 
baths  to  be  taken,  and  no  communication  with  women 
indulged  in.^ 

Similar  fasts  and  abstinences  were,  and  are  yet 
among  the  pagan  natives,  quite  usual  in  most  parts  of 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  440,  ref.  to     p.  343 ;  Sahagun,  Hist.  Gen. ,  t.  i. 
Torquemada,  t.  ii.  p.  212 ;  Acosta,     lib.  iii.  p.  275. 

"  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  313. 
480 


CONFESSION   IN   MEXICO   AND   PERU. 


481 


our  continent.  The  savage  Caribbeans  themselves  kept 
long  superstitious  fasts.^  The  longest,  however,  of  all 
reported  general  fasts  was  the  one  observed  by  the 
Cholulans  and  the  Tlascalans  every  four  years,  which 
lasted  one  hundred  and  sixty  days. — ^^  My  yoke  is 
sweet,  and  my  burden  light,"  says  Christ.'^ 

Veytia^  states  that  it  is  a  constant  and  uniform 
tradition  among  the  aborigines  of  Mexico  and  Central 
America  that  it  was  Quetzalcoatl  who  introduced  the 
Latin  fast  of  forty  days,  teaching,  moreover,  that  the 
penance  of  fasting  ought  to  be  accompanied  with 
works  of  charity  to  the  orphans  and  the  poor,  not 
only  for  the  sake  of  humanity,  but  also  for  the  love  of 
God. 

All  these  fasts  and  abstinences  had  their  grounds  in 
the  law  of  nature  observed  more  or  less  by  all  nations 
of  the  earth,  and  according  to  which  it  is  but  just  that 
man  should  atone  for  his  many  offences  against  the 
commandments  of  Alm'ghty  God.  But  here  again  we 
find  a  new  instance  oi  the  abuse  made  of  the  natural 
dictates  of  the  human  heart  whenever  the  devil,  man's 
original  enemy,  has  obtained  dominion  over  him.  It 
is  simply  horrible  to  hear  or  to  read  of  the  atrocious 
tortures  which  not  only  the  victims,  but  also  the  sacri- 
ficers  according  to  Satan's  rite,  had  to  endure.  Mexi- 
can penitents  often  walked  barefooted  on  agave  leaves 
and  cactus  branches  covered  with  their  stinging  thorns  ; 
at  stated  times  during  the  year  the  false  gods  required 
their  worshippers  to  draw  blood  from  their  lips,  ears, 
and  other  members,  to  pierce  their  tongues  several  times, 
and  to  thrust  grass-leaves,  straws,  and  reeds  through 
the  fresh,  bleeding  wounds.     To  carry  burning  coals 


*  Van     Speybrouck, 
Coloinb.,  bl.  1(X). 
"  St.  Matt.  xi.  30. 
I.— 31 


Chriatoffel        *  Hist.  Antig.,  p.  175,  quoted  by 
Gleesou,  vol.  i.  p.  178,  n.  1. 


I '  I 


^ 


li 


ir 


482       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

on  their  naked  scalps  was  a  not  uncommon  practice 
of  penitential  torture  for  the  natives  of  New  Spain, 
and  especially  for  their  younger  jDriests  and  friars. 
Penances  of  the  same  nature  and  others  more  bar- 
barous still  were  performed  by  several  tribes  of  North 
American  Indians,  as  they  were  by  the  Phoenicians, 
the  Buddhists,  and  the  Chinese.^ 

Nor  was  the  virtue  of  penance  only,  but,  what  is 
truly  surprising,  the  sacrament  also  was  practised  in 
several  parts  of  ancient  America ;  if,  at  least,  we  can 
give  that  name  to  religious  performances  which  singu- 
larly coincide  with  the  sacred  rite  that,  peculiar  to 
Christianity,  constitutes  the  very  hardest  of  its  duties. 
Voluntary  acknowledgment  of  sins  and  crimes,  auricu- 
lar confession,  was  frequently  made  in  Peru.  "  In 
Peru  they  confessed  themselves  verbally,  almost  in  all 
provinces ;  they  used  this  confession  when  their  chil- 
dren, wives,  husbands,  or  their  caciques  were  sicke, 
or  in  any  great  exploite.  When  their  Ynca  was  sicke, 
all  the  j)rovinces  confessed  themselves,  chiefly  those  of 
the  province  of  Callao.  .  .  .  Our  men  say,  that  in  the 
province  of  Chucuito,  even  at  this  day  [end  of  the  six- 
teenth century],  they  meete  with  the  plague  of  pagan 
confessors,  whereas  many  sick  persons  repaire  unto 
them."  ^  The  great  place  of  Peruvian  pilgrimages 
was  the  rock  of  Titicaca  on  the  island  of  the  same 
name,  the  place  from  which  the  sun  had  first  risen 
to  dispel  the  darkness  of  the  earth.  Three  succes- 
sive doors  led  to  the  temple ;  but  before  crossing  the 
first,  the  numerous  pilgrims  were  expected  to  con- 
fess their  sins.^     "  The  Ynca,  however,  or  Peruvian 

1  Acosta,  diversis  locis  ;  Sahagun,  '  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  360- 

Hist.  Gen.,  p.   184,  as  quoted  by  362;  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  240;  Bas- 

Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  438  ;  Icazbalceta,  tian,  Bd.  i.  8.  484. 

Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t.  i.  p.  '  Cronau,  S.  84. 
68  ;  Kastner,  p.  93. 


CONFESSION    IN    MEXICO    AND    PERU. 


483 


emperor,  confessed  himselve  to  no  man,  but  onely  to 
the  Sunne." ' 

Herrera  assures  us  that  confession  was  practised  in 
Nicaragua.^  It  was  also  in  Guatemala.  Before  the 
priest  performed  the  marriage  ceremony  he  desired  the 
young  man  and  his  bride  to  confess  to  him  all  the  sins 
of  their  past  life ;  the  mother  was  confessed  when  any 
difficulty  arose  in  childbirth,  and,  if  the  wife's  confes- 
sion alone  did  not  have  the  desired  effect,  the  husband 
was  called  upon  to  avow  his  sins ;  in  common  sick- 
nesses the  physician  merely  applied  the  usual  remedies, 
but  it  was  thought  that  a  severe  illness  could  only  be 
brought  on  by  some  crime  committed  and  unconfessed ; 
and  in  such  cases  the  doctor  insisted  upon  the  sick  man 
making  a  clean  breast  of  it,  and  confessing  such  sin, 
even  though  it  had  been  committed  twenty  years  before.^ 

The  custom  of  confessing  their  sins  likewise  existed 
among  the  natives  of  Yucatan  *  and  of  Honduras,  where 
the  mothers  were  obliged  to  prepare  for  confinement  by 
making  their  confession.® 

Voluntary  acknowledgment  of  sins  was  observed  also 
by  the  Mexicans  ;  but,  although  some  authors  assert  that 
they  went  to  confessicn  on  the  occasion  of  their  mar- 
riages,'' it  is  more  generally  admitted  that  they  con- 
fessed only  once  in  their  lives, — namely,  when  they  felt 
death  approaching,  convinced,  as  they  were,  that  sins 
once  forgiven  in  confession  could  be  forgiven  no  more, 
when  committed  over  againJ 


1  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  8G1. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  151. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  (iOO,  678, 
795. 

*  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  35. 
»  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  277. 

*  Gaffarel,  D(^couv.,  t.  i.  p.  438, 
ref.  to  Ilerrera,  dec.  iv.  lib.  v.  Tj 
25. 


'  Dicese  que  se  confeaaban  los 
viejos  y  de  los  grandes  pecados  de 
la  carne.  De  esto  bien  se  argiiye 
que  aunque  habiaii  heclio  muchos 
pecados  en  tiempo  de  su  juventud, 
no  86  confeaaban  de  el  los  hasta  la 
vejez  ;  por  la  opinion  que  tenian, 
de  que  el  que  tornaba  it  reincidir 
en  los  pecados  al  que  se  confesaban 


!     i- 


i. 


484       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUH. 

The  reason  and  object  of  all  these  people,  in  submit- 
ting to  the  humiliating  rite,  was  the  same  that  has  actu- 
ated all  Christians  since  the  time  that  Christ  said  to 
his  apostles,  "  Receive  ye  the  Holy  Ghost :  whose  sins 
you  shall  forgive,  they  are  forgiven  them ;  and  whose 
sins  you  shall  retain,  they  are  retained."  ^  They  firmly 
believed  that  their  confessors  enjoyed  divinely  dele- 
gated power  to  free  them  from  their  crimes  and  render 
them  agreeable  to  their  gods ;  and  this  happy  change 
from  sinfulness  to  sanctity  was  in  many  districts  rejjre- 
sented  by  putting  on  new  clothes  when  confession  was 
over.'"'  It  is  a  quite  remarkable  fact  that  this  remission 
of  sins  by  confession  was  admitted  by  the  civil  courts 
of  ancient  Mexico  ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  many  an  old 
sinner  went  to  confess  to  the  priest  his  murders  and 
adulteries,  in  order  to  keep  his  head  or  to  save  his 
bones  from  being  crushed  between  the  swinging  rocks. 
Even  until  this  day,  says  Sahagun,  many  Mexicans 
confide  in  confession  as  a  means  to  escape  civil  pun- 
ishment. It  not  rarely  happens  that,  when  one  has 
committed  an  odious  crime,  he  takes  refuge  in  our  mon- 
astery, declaring  his  desire  to  do  penance  for  deeds  that 
he  cannot  reveal ;  he  works  in  the  garden  and  sweeps 
the  house  and  does  all  he  is  told  to  do.  After  a  few 
days  he  makes  a  sincere  confession,  asking  a  testimonial 
signed  by  the  confessor,  which  he  forthwith  carries  to 
the  nearest  government  officer,  whether  governor  or 
judge,  in  order  to  prove  that,  having  done  penance  and 
confessed,  he  is  now  free  from  human  prosecution. 
The  missionary  Fathers  did  not  at  first  understand 
this  Indian  trick,  thinking  that  the  required  testimo- 


una  vez,  no  tenia  reniedio.  (Saha- 
gnn,  t.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  xii.  p.  15  ;  Dr. 
Servando  de  Mier,  ibid.  ;  Gaffarel, 
t.  i.  p.  438  ;  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  pp.  151, 
153,   ref.   to  Veytia,    Hist.  Mex.  ; 


Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.p.  71.) 

iSt.  John  XX.  22,  23. 

^  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  153 ;  Bastian, 
Bd.  i.  S.  181. 


CONFESSION   IN   MEXICO   AND    PERU. 


485 


nial  was  only  to  prove  the  fact  of  yearly  confession,  as 
in  some  parts  of  Europe.^ 

The  penitential  rite  of  Christianity  was  not  for  the 
civilized  aborigines  of  our  continent,  as  it  is  to-day,  one 
of  the  principal  obstacles  to  conversion.  They  were  used 
to  acknowledge  their  sins  to  their  priests  in  infidelity. 

"  The  office  of  confessor  was,  in  Peru,  likewise  exer- 
cised by  women,"  says  Acosta ;  ^  while,  on  the  contrary, 
the  Nicaraguans  would  not  confess  but  to  priests  who 
were  living  a  celibate  life.^  Nor  was  every  priest  au- 
thorized to  hear  the  confession  of  every  crime  ;  as  there 
were,  at  least  in  Peru,  "  some  sinnes  reserved  for  the 
superiors,"  *  who  appointed  the  confessors  of  lower 
rank.  All,  however,  were,  under  threat  of  the  severest 
penalties,  obliged  to  keep  secret  the  confessions  made 
to  them.  It  should  be  remarked,  says  Sahagun,  that 
such  as  heard  the  acknowledgment  of  sins  kept  their 
sacred  trust ;  never  did  they  tell  what  they  had  heard 
in  confession,  because  they  held  that  they  did  not  hear 
it  themselves,  but  rather  their  gods,  before  whom  alone 
sins  had  been  revealed.  It  was  not  supposed  that  a 
man  had  heard  them,  nor  that  they  had  been  told  to  a 
man,  but  to  a  god.^  It  seems  that,  with  one  or  two 
exceptions,"  this  law  was  strictly  observed  indeed.' 

The  right  dispositions  of  a  Christian  penitent  are  not 


*  Sahagim,  commented  by  Dr.  de 
Mier,  t.  i.  lib.  i.  cap.  xii.  p.  15 ; 
Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  4.'J8 ;  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  71. 

'^  Bk.  V.  ch.  XXV.  p.  361 ;  Nadail- 
lac,  Prehistoric  America,  p.  438. 

'  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap. 
ccvi.  fo.  195. 

*  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  3(50. 

*  Es  de  saber  que  loa  eatrapas  que 
oian  los  pecados,  tenian  gran  se- 
creto,  que  jamas  decian  lo  que  ha- 
bian  oido  en  la  confesion,  porque 


tenian  que  no  lo  habian  oido  ellos, 
sino  su  dios,  delante  de  quien  solo 
se  descubrian  los  pecados :  no  se 
pensaba  que  hombre  los  hubiese 
oido,  ni  a  hombre  se  hubiesen 
dicho,  sino  a  Dios.  (Sahagun,  t. 
i.  lib.  i.  cap.  xii.  p.  15 ;  Acosta,  bk. 
V.  ch.  xxv.  p.  .361  ;  Prescott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  71.) 

*  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  361. 

'  Herrera,  dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap. 
ccvi.  fo.  195. 


I 


M 


U.    M 


.  .1 


480       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

obscurely  signified  by  the  words  of  tlie  Mexican  priest 
before  hearing  the  confession.  "  O  Lord," — thus  he 
addressed  the  deity, — "thou  art  the  parent  and  most 
ancient  of  all  the  gods.  Behold  this  thy  servant,  who 
presenteth  himself  here  before  thee  in  affliction,  with 
much  sorrow  and  grief  for  having  erred  and  been  guilty 
of  crimes  worthy  of  death,  for  which  he  is  greatly 
grieved  and  afflicted.  Most  merciful  Lord,  who  art 
the  acceptor  and  defender  of  all,  receive  the  repentance 
of  this  thy  creature  and  servant."  Then  he  said  to  the 
penitent,  "  My  son,  thou  hast  come  into  the  presence  of 
the  most  merciful  and  beneficent  God,  thou  hast  come 
to  declare  thy  hidden  sins  and  crimes,  thou  hast  come 
to  open  to  him  the  secrets  of  thy  heart.  Lay  open  all 
without  shame  in  the  presence  of  our  Lord,  who  is 
called  Tezcatlipoca.  It  is  certain  thou  art  in  his  pres- 
ence, although  thou  art  unworthy  to  see  him,  although 
he  does  not  speak  to  thee,  for  he  is  invisible  and  impal- 
pable. Take  care,  then,  how  thou  comest,  what  kind 
of  heart  thou  bringest ;  do  not  hesitate  to  reveal  thy 
secret  sins  in  his  presence ;  recount  thy  life,  relate  thy 
works  in  the  same  manner  as  thou  hast  committed  thy 
excesses  and  offences ;  lay  open  thy  maladies  in  his 
presence,  and  manifest  them,  with  contrition,  to  our 
Lord  God,  who  is  the  acceptor  of  all,  and  who,  with 
open  arms,  is  ready  to  embrace  thee  and  to  receive  thy 
confession.  Take  care  thou  dost  not  conceal  anything 
through  shame  or  heedlessness."  The  penitent  then 
solemnly  promised  to  declare  the  truth  ;  after  which  he 
proceeded  to  the  confession  of  his  sins.'^ 

*'  They  hold  opinion  that  it  is  a  heinous  sinne  to 
conceale  any  thing  in  confession."  ^  The  Mexican  priest 
gravely   admonished   his   penitent   to   make   his  con- 


'  Gleeson,  vol. 
from  Sahagun. 


i.   pp.   153,   154,         '■'  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  161. 


C0NFE8HI0N    IN    MEXICO   AND    PERU. 


487 


fession  sincere  and  entire.  "  O  my  brother,"  he  told 
him,  "  thou  hast  thrown  thyself  down  the  banks  of  the 
river  and  among  the  snares  and  nets,  whence,  without 
aid,  it  is  not  possible  that  thou  shouldst  escape.  The 
sins  that  thou  hast  confessed  are  not  only  snares,  nets, 
and  wells  into  which  thou  hast  fallen,  but  they  are  also 
wild  beasts,  that  kill  and  rend  both  body  and  soul. 
Peradventure  hast  thou  hidden  some  one  of  thy  sins, 
weighty,  huge,  filthy,  unsavory  ;  hidden  something  now 
published  in  heaven,  earth,  and  hell ;  something  that 
now  stinks  to  the  uttermost  part  of  the  world  ?  Tell 
wholly  all  that  thou  hast  done,  as  one  that  fiings  him- 
self into  a  deep  place,  into  a  well  without  bottom."  * 

Concealment  of  sins  was  guarded  against  in  a  more 
practical  manner  by  the  confessors  of  Peru.  The  pen- 
itent was  to  take  along  a  ball  of  red  clay  and  a  large 
cactus  thorn.  After  the  confession  was  ended  the 
priest  pierced  the  ball  with  the  thorn,  and  if  it  broke 
into  two  parts,  instead  of  in  three,  the  confession  had 
been  defective  and  was  to  be  made  over  again.  At 
other  times  "  the  Ychuyri  or  confessors  discovered  by 
lottes,  or  by  the  view  of  some  beast-hides,  if  anything 
were  concealed,  and  then  punished  the  penitents  with 
many  blowes  with  a  stone  upon  the  shoulders  untill 
they  had  revealed  all."^ 

After  the  penitent's  complete  avowal  the  Mexican 
confessor  gravely  continued  :  "0  our  most  compassion- 
ate Lord,  if  this  man  have  told  all  the  truth,  and  have 
freed  and  untied  himself  from  his  sins  and  faults,  he 
has  received  the  pardon  of  them  and  of  what  they  have 
incurred.  This  poor  man  is  even  as  a  man  that  has 
slipped  and  fallen  in  thy  presence,  offending  thee  in 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  222,  from        ^  Bastian,  Bd.  i.  S.  481 ;  Acosta, 
Sahaguu,  t.  ii.  lib.  vi.  bk.  v.  cli.   xxv.  p.  361 ;  Gleeson, 

vol.  i.  p.  152. 


■     I 


);:Mvf 


488        HISTORY    OF    AMKRICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 

divers  ways,  dirting  himself  also,  and  casting  himself 
into  a  deep  cavern  and  a  bottomless  well.  He  fell  like 
a  poor  and  lean  man,  and  now  he  is  grieved  and  dis- 
contented with  all  the  past ;  his  heart  and  body  are 
pained  and  ill  at  ease ;  he  is  now  filled  with  heaviness 
for  having  done  what  he  did ;  he  is  now  wholly  deter- 
mined never  to  offend  thee  again.  In  thy  presence  I 
speak,  O  Lord  that  knowest  all  things,  that  knowest 
also  that  this  poor  wretch  did  not  sin  with  an  entire 
liberty  of  free  will ;  he  was  pushed  to  it  and  inclined 
by  the  nature  of  the  sign  under  which  he  was  born. 
And  since  this  is  so,  O  our  Ijord  most  clement,  pro- 
tector and  helper  of  all ;  since  also  this  poor  man  has 
gravely  ofi'ended  thee,  wilt  tUou  not  remove  thine 
anger  and  thine  indignation  from  him?  Give  him 
time,  O  Lord,  favor  and  pardon  him,  inasmuch  as  he 
weeps,  sighs,  and  sobs,  looking  before  him  on  the  evil 
he  has  done,  and  on  that  wherein  he  has  offended  thee. 
He  is  sorrowful,  he  sheds  many  tears,  the  sorrow  of  his 
sins  afiiicts  his  heart ;  he  is  not  sorry  only,  but  terrified 
also  at  thoughts  of  them.  This  being  so,  it  is  also  a 
just  thing  that  thy  fury  and  indignation  against  him 
be  appeased,  and  that  his  sins  be  thrown  on  one  side. 
Since  thou  art  full  of  pity,  O  Lord,  see  good  to  pardon 
and  to  cleanse  him  ;  grant  him  the  pardon  and  remis- 
sion of  his  sins,  a  thing  that  descends  from  heaven  as 
water  very  clear  and  very  pure  to  wash  away  sins,  with 
which  thou  washest  away  all  the  stain  and  impurity 
that  sin  causes  in  the  soul.  See  good,  O  Lord,  that  this 
man  go  in  peace,  and  command  him  in  what  he  has  to 
do ;  \< '  him  go  to  do  penance  and  weep  over  his  sins."  ^ 
After  this  absolution,  in  the  Greek  deprecatory  form, 
the  Mexican  confessor  went  on  to  give  some  salutary 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  221,  from  Sahagun,  t.  ii.  lib.  vi. 


C0NFE8HI0N   IN    MEXICO   AND    PERU. 


489 


admonitions  and  to  impose  penances  upon  his  penitent. 
"  Thou  hast  snatched  thyself  from  hell,"  he  said,  "  and 
hast  returned  again  to  come  to  life  in  this  world  as 
one  that  comes  from  another.  Now  thou  hast  been 
born  anew,  thou  hast  begun  to  live  anew,  and  our  Lord 
God  gives  thee  light  and  a  new  sun.  Therefore  I 
entreat  thee  to  stand  up  and  strengthen  thyself,  and  to 
be  no  more  henceforth  as  thou  hast  been  in  the  past. 
Take  to  thyself  a  new  heart  and  a  new  manner  of 
living,  and  take  good  care  not  to  turn  again  to  thine 
old  sins.  To  conclude,  I  tell  thee  to  go  and  learn  to 
sweep,  and  to  get  rid  of  the  filth  and  sweepings  of  thy 
house,  and  to  cleanse  everything,  thyself  not  the  least, 
and" — to  unite  crime  with  penance — **  seek  out  also  a 
slave  to  immolate  him  before  the  god ;  make  a  feast  to 
the  principal  men  and  let  them  sing  the  praises  of  our 
Lord  [in  drunkenness] .  It  is,  moreover,  fit  that  thou 
shouldst  do  penance,  working  a  year  or  more  in  the 
house  of  the  god ;  there  thou  shalt  bleed  thyself  and 
prick  thy  body  with  maguey  thorns ;  and,  as  a  penance 
for  the  adulteries  and  other  vilenesses  that  thou  hast 
committed,  thou  shalt,  twice  a  day,  pass  osier  twigs 
through  holes  pierced  ia  thy  body,  once  through  thy 
tongue  and  once  through  thine  ears.  This  penance 
shalt  thou  do,  not  alone  for  the  carnalities  above  men- 
tioned, but  also  for  the  evil  and  injurious  words  with 
which  thou  hast  insulted  and  aifronted  thy  neighbors, 
as  also  for  the  ingratitude  thou  hast  shown  with  refer- 
ence to  the  gifts  bestowed  on  thee  by  our  Lord,  and 
for  thine  inhumanity  towards  thy  neighbors.  There 
remains  nothing  more  to  be  said  to  thee.  Go  in  peace, 
and  entreat  the  god  to  aid  thee  to  fulfil  what  thou  art 
obliged  to  do."  ^     Such  is  the  strange  medley  of  truly 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  224,  from  Sahagiin,  t.  ii.  lib.  vi. 


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490       HrSTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Christian  virtues  aud  lieatlieiiisli  abominations  which 
pervades  the  Aztec  liturgy,  intimating  sources  widely 
different. 

The  barbarous  penances  imposed  by  the  Mexican 
confessors  are  in  keeping  with  the  cruelty  of  their 
religion.  The  human  sacrifice  was  replaced  in  Peru 
by  the  oblation  of  some  animal,  and,  as  in  Nicaragua, 
the  chastisements  inflicted  on  the  confessing  penitents 
by  the  Peruvian  priests  were  usually  in  proportion  to 
the  gravity  of  their  sins ;  although  it  is  observed  by 
Acosta  that  "  they  received  penaunce  sometimes  very 
sharpely,  especially  when  the  offender  was  a  poore 
man  and  had  nothing  to  give  his  confessor."  ^ 

Such  are  the  most  interesting  particulars  of  ancient 
American  confession  of  sins,  which,  whether  of  Chris- 
tian origin  or  not,  bear  a  striking  similarity  to  tbe 
rites  of  the  sacrament  of  penance.  An  old  Indian 
told  one  of  the  first  Christian  missionaries  of  Chiapa 
that,  according  to  an  old  tradition  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  confession  had  been  intro- 
duced among  them  by  twenty  strangers,  who  had,  in 
olden  times,  come  to  their  country.  Fifteen  of  these 
were  still  known  by  name,  and  their  leader  was  called 
Cukulcan ;  they  wore  large  mantles,  sandals,  and  long 
beards,  and  went  bare-headed.^ 

This  Cukulcan,  prooably  the  same  as  the  Mexican 
Quetzalcoatl,  was  a  religious  reformer,  who  has  after- 
wards been  deified  and  worshipped ;  likely  a  European 
and  possibly  a  Chr"?tian  bishop,  who  has  left  behind 
a  priesthood  not  only  hearing  confessions,  but  similar 
in  many  other  respects  to  the  Catholic  clergy.^ 


'  Bastian,  Bd.  i.  S.  478 ;  Herrera  Ixvi.  ch.  cxxiii.  p.  453,  B.  de  las 

dec.  ii.  lib.  iii.  cap.  ccvi.  fo.  195 ;  Caaain. 

Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxv.  p.  M\.  '  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 

'^  Uoleccion    de    Docuiuentos,    t.  vol.  iii.  p.  I^()7. 


mmmmm 


Hi 


CHAPTER   XX. 

PRIESTHOOD,  IlELIGIOUS  ORDERS,  MARRIAGES,  EDUCA- 
TION, AND  MIRISTIAN  RITES  IN  ANCIENT  MEXICO, 
CENTRAL    AMERICA,    AND    PERU. 


!'  1 


No  one  was  admitted,  among  the  Maya  and  the 
Nahua  nations,  to  the  sacred  functions  of  religion  but 
after  a  careful  preparation  and  novitiate  in  religious 
schools  and  monasteries.  Up  to  the  time  of  com- 
mencing his  novitiate  and  for  four  years  after  it  was 
ended  the  candidate  for  the  priesthood  was  supposed 
to  have  led  a  perfectly  chaste  life ;  otherwise  he  was 
jud'^<3d  unworthy  of  being  admitted  into  the  Order. 
His  only  food  during  one  year  of  probation  was  herbs, 
wild  honey,  and  roasted  maize ;  his  life  passed  in 
silence  and  retirement,  and  the  monotonv  of  his  ex- 
istence  was  only  relieved  by  waiting  on  the  priests, 
taking  care  of  the  altars,  sweeping  the  temple,  and 
gathering  wood  for  the  fires.  Young  men  of  all  classes 
of  society  had  access  to  the  priestly  functions,  although 
in  some  places  the  pontifical  dignity  was  hereditary,  or 
reserved  for  the  king  and  his  sons.^ 

The  Mexican  priests,  and  especially  their  higher 
pontiffs,  were  ordained  and  consecrated  with  great 
solemnity,  and  anointed  with  a  mixture  of  a  fluid 
called,  in  the  Totonac  tongue,  "  ole"  and  of  children  s 
blood. '^  In  many  places  the  high-priests  were  called 
popes,  "  Papas,"  and  wore  a  mitre  not  unlike  that  of 


^  Bancroft,    vol. 
passiui. 


ii.    p.    208,    et 


'  Acosta,  bk.  v.  cli.  xiv.  p.  331  ; 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  214  ;  vol.  iii. 
p.  433. 

4'.>1 


1 1 


7   ,' 


il 


n 


492       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

our  bishops.^  During  religious  ceremonies  their  cos- 
tumes were  as  gorgeous  as  the  Christian  paraphernalia, 
while  on  ordinary  occasions  they  wore  an  ample  black 
robe,  rarely  a  white,  reaching  to  the  ground,  their 
heads  being  covered  with  a  hood  that  allowed  their 
hair  to  fall  over  their  shoulders.^ 

It  was  the  province  of  the  Mexican  and,  it  seems, 
also  of  the  Peruvian  priests  to  attend  to  all  matters 
relating  to  religion  and  to  the  instruction  of  youth. 
Some  took  charge  of  the  sacrifices,  others  were  skilled 
in  the  art  of  divination,  a  number  of  them  were  in- 
trusted with  the  arrangement  of  the  festivals  and  the 
care  of  the  temple  and  sacred  vessels,  others  applied 
themselves  to  the  composition  of  hymns  and  attended 
to  the  singing  and  music.  The  priests,  who  were 
learned  in  science,  superintended  the  schools  and  col- 
leges, made  the  calculations  for  the  annual  calendar, 
and  fixed  the  days  of  religious  feasts ;  those  who  pos- 
sessed literary  talent  compiled  historical  works  and 
collected  material  for  the  libraries.  To  each  temple 
was  attached  a  school  and  a  monastery,  which  we 
might  call  a  Chapter,  the  members  of  which  enjoyed 
privileges  similar  to  those  of  our  canons.^  One  par- 
ticular duty  of  the  Mexican  clergy  was  to  pray  for, 
and  to  impart  their  blessing  to,  the  people  that  were 
humbly  bowing  before  them,*  until  the  day  would 
come  that  they  should  cut  open  their  breasts  and  tear 
out  their  palpitating  hearts. 

Each  priest  had  his  special  duties,  and  each  had  his 
rank,  particularly  in  our  northern  continent,  in  a  well- 
defined  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.     There  were  the  Teo- 


*  Acosta,  bk,  v.  ch.  xiv.  p.  330 ; 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  213,  215 ; 
Coleccion  de  Documentoe,  t.  Iv. 
p.  327  ;  Duran,  t.  ii.  lamina  U". 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  213,  quoting 
Ixtlilxochitl,  Relaciones. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  203 ;  Kaet- 
ner,  p.  92. 

*  Duran,  t.  ii.  lamina  11*. 


npip)M<ftin;v(pnp|iti|;nt«ii . 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     493 

liuatzin,  the  Quetzalcoatl,  the  Huitznahuac-Teohuatzin, 
the  Huey-Teopixqui,  and  the  Teopixqui  or  common 
priests.  Besides  these,  who  took  rank  according  to 
the  importance  of  their  several  duties,  there  was  a 
crowd  of  other  dignitaries  succeeding  each  other  in 
perfect  order.  In  fact,  if  this  co-ordination  was  not 
a  remnant  of  a  Christian  institution,  we  might  well 
subscribe  to  the  quaint  remark  of  Acosta,  who  says, 
"  The  devill,  counterfeiting  the  use  of  the  Church  of 
God,  hath  placed  in  the  order  of  his  priests  in  Mexico, 
some  greater  or  superiors,  and  some  lesse  ;  the  ones  as 
acolites,  the  others  as  levites."  ^ 

The  priests  of  the  civilized  American  aborigines  were 
supported  in  the  same  manner  as  are  those  of  the 
Christian  religion.  Confined  to  the  performance  of 
their  religious  duties,  they  were  forbidden  to  engage  in 
secular  affairs  ;  but  their  living  was  provided  for  by 
"  great  offerings  made  unto  tnem  and  the  revenues  and 
inheritance  of  their  sods,  which  were  manv  and  also 
verie  rich."  The  huacas  or  temples  of  Peru  and  the 
teocallis  of  Mexico  had  their  endowments  of  lands  and 
servants,  both  male  and  female.^  The  vast  revenues 
needed  for  the  support  and  repair  of  thousands  of  tem- 
ples in  New  Spain,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
immense  army  of  priests  that  officiated  in  them,  were 
derived  from  various  sources.  The  greatest  part  was 
supplied  from  large  tracts  of  land,  which  were  the 
property  of  the  teocallis,  and  were  held  by  vassals  under 
certain  conditions,  or  worked  by  slaves.  Besides  this, 
taxes  of  grain,  especially  first-fruits,  were  levied  upon 
the  communities  and  stored  in  granaries  attached  to  the 
temples.     The  voluntary  contributions — from  a  cake, 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  201  ;  Acosta,        *  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xiv.  p.  381  ; 
bk.  V.  ch.  xiv.  p.  330.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i. 

p.  47  ;  Payne,  p.  597. 


i*?-*i 
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494       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORP^   COLUMBUS. 

feather,  or  robe,  to  slaves  or  priceless  gems,  given  in 
fulfilment  of  vows  or  at  the  numerous  festivals — formed 
no  unimportant  income.  Whatever  surplus  remained 
of  the  revenues  after  all  expenses  had  been  defrayed  is 
said  to  have  been  devoted  to  the  support  of  charitable 
institutions  and  the  relief  of  the  poor ;  exactly  as  it 
was  directed  by  canonical  legislation  and  is  practised 
yet  by  the  Church  in  modern  Europe.^ 

A  last  and  not  the  least  remarkable  analogy  between 
the  Catholic  clergy  and  the  ancient  priesthood  of  New 
Spain  consists  in  the  fact  that  quite  a  number  of  the 
latter  were,  after  voluntary  choice,  obliged  to  live  a 
pure  celibate  life.  We  have  noticed  before  ^  that  the 
Nicaraguans  would  not  confess  their  sins  but  to  unmar- 
ried priests.  The  influence  which  the  priests  of  Zapoteca 
were  supposed  to  have  with  the  gods,  and  the  care  which 
they  took  to  keep  their  number  constantly  recruited 
with  scions  of  the  most  illustrious  families,  gained  them 
great  authority  among  the  people ;  but  what  especially 
added  to  the  credit  of  their  profession  was  the  strict 
propriety  of  their  manners  and  the  excessive  rigor  with 
which  they  guarded  their  chastity.  In  Miztecapan,  the 
young  clergy,  after  four  years'  apprenticeship,  were 
allowed,  almost  as  in  the  Greek  Church,  to  marry,  if 
they  chose,  and  to  perform  priestly  functions ;  but,  if 
they  preferred  a  single  life,  they  entered  into  one  of  the 
monasteries  which  were  dependencies  of  the  temples. 
Higher  authority  and  ecclesiastical  dignities  were  gen- 
erally granted  to  members  of  the  latter  class ;  yet,  if 
one  of  them  violated  his  vow  of  chastity,  he  was  basti- 
nadoed to  death.  The  celibate  priest  who,  in  Mexico, 
committed  the  same  offence,  w^as  banished,  his  house 
demolished,  and  his  property  confiscated.     The  virtue 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  430 ;  Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  i.  74. 


2  Si 


upra,  p.  485. 


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MB 


■PiPIIIW*''^*^ 


mmmrmim 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     495 

of  the  high-priests  themselves  was  protected  by  the  most 
stringent  laws ;  thus,  at  Ichatlan,  should  the  pontiff 
forget  the  duties  of  celibacy,  he  was  cut  in  pieces,  and 
his  bloody  limbs  were  given  as  a  warning  to  his  suc- 


cessor 


1 


The  pontifical  dignity  being  hereditary  in  Yopaa  of 
Zapoteca,  the  difficulty  arising  from  strict  continence 
was  bridged  over  by  introducing,  once  a  year,  a  bright 
virgin  to  the  venerable  high-priest,  who  was  allowed  to 
get  drunk  on  the  occasion.^ 

Positive  statements,  furthermore,  confirm  the  infer- 
ence which  we  might  draw  from  the  severity  of  the 
laws, — namely,  that  the  observance  of  pontifical  or 
priestly  continence  was  far  below  perfection  among  the 
civilized  aborigines  of  our  continent.^ 

It  seems,  however,  that  perpetual  chastity  was  more 
faithfully  observed  in  the  monasteries  and  convents  of 
Mexico  and  of  Peru. 

There  existed,  indeed,  in  both  countries,  such  reli- 
gious institutions,  both  for  males  and  for  females,  as 
closely  resembled  the  monastic  Orders  of  the  Church, 
having  the  three  evangelical  counsels  as  their  principal 
features. 

We  know  that  in  Peru  there  were  religious  commu- 
nities for  men,  although  perhaps  not  quite  distinct  from 
the  general  priesthood ;  and,  says  Clavigero,*  different 
Orders  for  men  and  for  women  dedicated  themselves  in 
Mexico  to  the  worship  of  some  particular  gods.  Some 
lived  in  community,  others  had  a  superior  in  their  dis- 
trict and  assembled  in  a  house,  at  sunset,  to  dance  and 
sing  the  praises  of  their  god. 


1  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  208,  212, 
4(59  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  4:13. 

»  Bastiaii,  Bd.  ii.  S.  529 ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  ii.  p.  143. 

'  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  790  :  "  Porque 


teiiian  por  honrosa  cosluinbre,  que 
ello.s  las  qnitassen  la  virginidad." 

*  History  of  Mexico,   vol.   i.   p. 
277,  ap.  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  144. 


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496       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUS. 

We  have  just  noticed^  that  the  younger  clergymen, 
who  chose  not  to  marry,  entered  a  monastery  ;  and 
while  performing  their  regular  duties,  they  increased 
the  austerity  of  their  life.  The  king  or  the  nobles, 
each  in  his  own  territory,  provided  for  their  wanf^  ;  and 
certain  women,  sworn  to  chastity,  prepared  their  food. 
They  never  left  their  house,  except  on  special  occasions, 
— to  assist  at  some  feast,  to  play  at  ball  in  the  court  of 
their  sovereign  lord,  to  go  on  a  pilgrimage  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  a  vow  made  by  the  king  or  by  them- 
selves, or  to  take  their  place  at  the  head  of  the  army, 
which,  on  certain  occasions,  they  commanded.'^ 

Of  the  several  religious  Orders  proper,  the  most  re- 
nowned for  its  sanctity  was  that  of  the  "  Tlamacaxqui," 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  Quetzalcoatl,  to  whom  is 
referred  the  institution  of  ecclesiastical  communities  in 
Mexico.^  The  superior  of  this  Order,  who  was  called 
after  the  god,  and  whom  all  were  strictly  to  obey,  never 
deigned  to  issue  from  his  seclusion  excejit  to  confer 
with  the  king.  Its  members  led  a  very  ascetic  life, 
living  on  coarse  fare,  dressing  in  simple  black  robes,  and 
performing  all  manner  of  hard  work.  They  bathed  at 
midnight  and  kept  watch  until  an  hour  or  two  before 
dawn,  singing  hymns  to  Quetzalcoatl.  On  occasions 
some  of  them  retired  into  the  desert  to  lead  a  life  of 
prayer  and  penance  in  solitude.* 

There  existed  among  the  Totonacs  a  peculiar  kind  of 
aged  monks,  devoted  to  their  goddess  Centeotl.  They 
led  a  very  austere  and  retired  life,  and  their  character 
was,  according  to  the  Totonac  standard,  irreproachable. 
None  but  men  over  sixty  years  of  age,  who  were  wid- 


^  Supra,  p.  494. 
2  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  208. 
*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  367. 


♦  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  436  ;  Kast- 
ner,  p.  92. 


mmmmmi 


gH^%Mi 


re- 


ast- 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     4U7 

owers,  of  virtuous  life,  and  estranged  from  the  society 
of  women,  were  admitted  into  the  Order.  Their  num- 
ber was  fixed,  and  when  one  of  them  died  anotlier  was 
received  in  his  stead.  They  were  so  highly  respected 
that  not  only  were  they  consulted  by  the  common  peo- 
ple, but  also  by  the  great  nobles  and  the  high-priest 
himself.  They  listened  to  those  who  asked  their  ad- 
vice, sitting  on  their  heels,  with  their  eyes  fixed  upon 
the  ground ;  and  their  answers  were  received  as  ora- 
cles even  by  the  kings  of  Mexico.  They  were  habitu- 
ally employed  in  making  historical  paintings,  which 
they  gave  to  the  high-priest,  that  he  might  exhibit  and 
explain  them  to  the  people.^ 

Acosta  gives  the  description  of  another  religious  in- 
stitution, quite  different  from  the  foregoing  in  several 
respects :  "  Within  the  circuit  of  the  great  temple  of 
the  city  of  Mexico  were  two  monasteries,  one  of  vir- 
gins, the  other  of  young  cloistered  men  of  eighteene  or 
twenty  years  of  age,  which  they  called  religious.  They 
weare  shaved  crownes,  as  the  friars  in  these  partes,  their 
haire  a  little  longer,  which  fell  to  the  middest  of  their 
eare,  except  the  hinder  part  of  the  head,  which  they 
let  growe  the  breadth  of  foure  fingers  downe  to  their 
shoulders,  and  which  they  tied  uppe  in  tresses.  These 
young  men,  that  served  in  the  temple  of  Vitzlipultzli, 
lived  poorely  and  chastely,  and  did  the  office  of  Levites, 
ministering  to  the  priests  and  chiefe  of  the  temple  their 
incense,  lights,  and  garments ;  they  swept  and  made 
cleane  the  holy  places,  bringing  wood  for  a  continual 
fire  to  the  hearth  of  their  god,  which  was  like  a  lampe 
that  stille  burnt  before  the  altar  of  their  idoU.  Besides 
these  young  men,  there  were  other  little  boys,  as  nov- 
ices, that  served  for  manual  uses,  as  to  deck  the  temple 

*  Gleesoii,  vol.  i.  p.  144,  quoting     vol.  iii.  p.  487,  quoting  Las  Casas 
Clavigero  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  214  ;     and  Mendieta. 
I.— 32 


iJp 


k 


498 


HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


with  boughs,  roses,  and  reeds,  give  the  priests  water  to 
wash  with,  give  them  their  rasors  to  sacrilice,  and  goe 
with  such  as  begged  alms,  to  carry  it.  All  these  had 
their  superiors ;  they  lived  so  honestly,  as  when  they 
came  in  publike  where  there  were  young  women,  they 
carried  their  heads  very  lowe,  with  their  eyes  to  the 
ground,  not  daring  to  behold  them.  They  had  linnen 
garments,  and  it  was  lawful  for  them  to  goe  into  the 
city,  foure  or  six  together,  to  aske  alms  in  all  quarters, 
and  when  they  gave  them  none  it  was  lawful  to  goe  into 
the  corne  fields  and  gather  the  eares  of  corne  or  clusters 
of  mays,  which  they  most  needed,  the  maister  not  daring 
to  speake  nor  hinder  them.  They  had  this  liberty  be- 
cause they  lived  poorely,  and  had  no  other  revenues 
but  almes."  ^  They  also  practised  bloody  penances ; 
but,  while  some  of  them  vowed  their  whole  lives  to  the 
service  of  the  gods,  nearly  all  returned  to  the  gay 
world  after  one  year's  experience  of  asceticism.^ 

As  just  observed,  there  was  also  a  convent  of  young 
maidens  attached  to  the  great  temple  of  Mexico,  and 
the  number  of  female  religious  communities  in  the 
Aztec  empire  was  not  less  than  that  of  monastic  institu- 
tions for  men. 

The  convents  were  conducted  on  the  general  plan  of 
the  monasteries,  and  the  religieuses  we^^  equally  re- 
markable for  the  purity  and  austerity  of  their  lives. 
They  took  vows  either  for  life  or  only  for  a  time.  Upon 
entering  the  convent  each  girl  had  her  hair  cut  short. 
They  all  lived  in  silence  and  retirement,  under  strict 
obedience  to  their  superiors,  without  having  any  com- 
munication with  men  or  relatives.  Not  even  their 
fathers  or  mothers  were  admitted  to  visit  them.  Some 
were  required  to  rise  about  two  hours  before  midnight. 


'  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xv.  p.  336. 


»  Cf.  Duran,  t.  ii.  pp.  86,  88. 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     499 


gay 


others  at  iiiidnight,  and  others  yet  at  daybreak,  to  stir 
up  and  keep  the  fire  burning  and  to  offer  incense 
to  the  idols.  In  this  function  they  assembled  with 
the  priests,  yet  separated  from  them,  the  men  form- 
ing one  wing  and  the  women  the  other,  both  under 
the  inspection  of  their  superiors,  who  prevented  any 
disorder,  and  all  walking  with  eyes  modestly  bent  upon 
the  ground  and  without  daring  to  cast  a  glance  to  one 
side  or  to  the  other.  Every  morning  they  prepared  the 
offering  of  provisions,  which  was  presented  to  the  idols 
and,  after  sacrifice,  consumed  by  the  priests.  The  nuns 
themselves  fasted  strictly,  first  breaking  their  fast  at 
noon,  and  taking  but  a  scanty  meal  in  the  evening. 
Vegetables  were  their  only  food,  except  on  feast  days, 
when  they  were  permitted  to  taste  meat.  Their  time 
not  occupied  in  religious  duties  was  employed  in  spin- 
ning and  weaving  beautiful  cloths  for  the  dress  of  the 
idols,  and  in  decorating  the  sanctuaries. 

Nothing  was  more  zealously  attended  to  than  the 
chastity  of  these  virgins  ;  the  least  impropriety  was  un- 
pardonable, and  death  was  the  penalty  of  the  violation 
of  their  vow ;  and,  when  the  trespass  remained  an  en- 
tire secret,  the  nun  endeavored  to  appease  the  anger  of 
the  gods  by  fasting  more  strictly  and  living  in  greater 
austerity,  for  she  dreaded  that,  in  punishment  of  her 
crime,  her  flesh  would  rot.^ 

Nicolas  Herborn  further  learned  the  following  de- 
tails from  the  Franciscan  who,  in  the  year  1532,  had 
been  sent  from  New  Spain  to  the  General  Chapter  of 
Toulouse  :  "  There  were,"  he  says,  "  before  the  advent 
of  our  missionary  brothers,  a  great  number  of  convents 

*  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xv.  ;  Clavi-  vera  de  Novis  Insulis,    from  MS. 

gero,  t.  ii.  p.  42 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  Cod.  1374  of   the  Treves  City  Li- 

pp.  205,  200  ;  vol.  iii.  p.  435  ;  Glee-  brary,  ante  tineui. 
son,  vol.  i.   pp.  145,  146 ;  Relatio 


It 


f 


5CK)        HIHTOllY    OF    AMKIUCA    HKKORE   COLUMHUH. 

in  the  city  of  Tiimhez,  Peru,  into  wiiicli  no  man,  nor 
even  tlio  fUthor  or  the  niother  of  a  nun,  was  allowed  to 
enter.  Only  two  old  men  were  there  as  directors,  and 
none  hut  pure  virgins  were  sent  to  the  community. 

"  They  had  in  their  convent  a  gold  statue  live  cuhits 
high,  representing  a  young  maid  with  a  hahe  in  her 
arms  ;  they  gave  her  the  name  of  Merea  and  offered 
her  incense.  If  they  haj)pened  to  suffer  with  sore  feet 
or  hands,  they  invoked  her  and  presented  her  with  a 
hand  or  a  foot  of  gold,  thus  eventually  recovering 
health  again  !"  ' 

In  Yucatan  existed  an  Order  of  vestals,  all  the  mem- 
bers of  which  entered  of  their  own  free  will,  and  gen- 
erally enrolled  themselves  for  a  certain  length  of  time. 
Some,  however,  remained  forever  unmarried  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  temple,  and  were  apotheosized.  Their  duty 
was  to  tend  the  sacred  fire  and  to  keej)  strictly  chaste. 
Those  who  broke  their  vows  were  shot  to  death. ^ 

Landa  tells  us  that  the  Chichen  Itza  pontiff-kings 
lived  in  a  state  of  strict  celibacy  ;  and  Diaz  relates  that 
a  tower  was  pointed  out  to  him  on  the  coast  of  Yuca- 
tan which  was  occupied  by  women  who  had  dedicated 
themselves  to  a  single  life.^ 

In    Peru   there   likewise  were   a   great   number  of 


'  MS.  Cod.  No.  1374  of  the  City  Li- 
brary of  Treves  :  Nicolaiis  Herborn, 
Provincialis  Min.  Observ.,  Kelatio 
vera  de  Novis  IhsuIIh,  ante  linein  : 
"  Enint  ante  fidein  Christi  predica- 
tani  in  ea  urbe — TnnibeH  jjfovincie 
parichen — nuilta  virginnui  nionas- 
teria,  ad  que  nemo  virorum,  inio 
nee  pater  ant  mater,  audebat  in- 
trare.  Soli  duo  senes  illis  prefecti 
fuerunt,  nnlleque  nisi  vii^ines  pure 
ad  earum  mittebantur  consortium. 
Erat  illis  imago  aurea  quinque  cu- 
bitorum,  virginis  figuram  preferens 


brachiisque  infantuluni  gestans  ;  et 
banc  meream  appeliavere,  huic 
tlnira  ieetabantur,  banc  colebant ; 
banc  interpellare  solite,  si  quando 
vel  pes  vel  manus  indoluit,  et  con- 
ferebant  aureuni  podem  aut  certe 
auream  maniun  inuigini,  et  ita  de- 
mum  consequebantur  .sanitatem." 

^  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  47;{,  quoting 
several  authors  ;  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S. 
373. 

'  Diaz,  Itint'raire,  in  Ternaux- 
Compans,  a^rie  i.  t.  x.  p.  13,  ap. 
Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  672. 


OTHKR  CHHIHTIAN  HAt'RAMKNTH  AND  INSTITUTIONM.     501 


convents,  one  at  lcii.st  in  every  province ;  but  the  most 
renowned  of  all  was  tliat  of  Cii/co,  which  contained  no 
lesH  tlian  fifteen  liundred  inmates,  all  of  whom  belonged 
to  the  families  of  the  Incas  and  of  the  highest  nobility. 
The  Peruvian  nuns  were  strictly  cloistered,  and  liad, 
for  special  duty,  to  keep  the  sacred  fires  constantly 
burning  in  honor  of  the  sun.  Each  comnuinity,  living 
under  one  superior  or  "  Appopanaca,"  was  divided  into 
two  classes  of  devotees, — the  older,  who  were  bound  to 
j)erpetual  continence  and  called  Mamaconas ;  and  the 
younger  elect,  or  "  Acclas,"  who  were,  for  the  present, 
living  under  the  severest  laws  of  chtistity,  but  whose 
future  state  of  life  was  yet  quite  undecided.  They  gen- 
erally entered  the  convent  at  the  age  of  eight  years.^ 

"  They  took  them  from  thence,"  says  Acosta,  "  being 
above  the  fourteene,  sending  them  to  the  court  with 
sureguards.  Whereof  s(»me  were  appointed  to  serve  the 
Guacas  or  sanctuaries,  keeping  their  virginities  forever  ; 
some  others  were  for  the  ordinary  sacrifices  they  made 
for  the  health,  death,  or  warres  of  the  Ynca;  and  the 
rest  served  for  wives  and  concubines  to  the  Ynca  and 
unto  other  his  kinsfolkes  and  captaines,  unto  whom  hee 
gave  them,  which  was  a  great  and  honorable  recom- 
pense.    This  distribution  was  made  every  year. 

*'  These  monasteries  possessed  rents  and  revenues  for 
the  maintenance  of  these  virgins,  which  were  in  great 
numbers. 

"  It  was  not  lawful  for  any  father  to  refuse  his  daugh- 
ters when  the  governor  or  Appopanaca  required  them 
for  the  service  of  these  monasteries.  Yea,  many  fathers 
did  willingly  offer  their  daughters,  supposing  it  was  a 
great  merit  to  be  sacrificed  for  the  Ynca. 


Ill 


*  Acostii,  bk.  V.  ch.  xv.  p.  332  ; 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Comenta- 
rios,  lib.  ii.  cap.  ix.  ;  lib.  iv.  cap. 


i.  p.  106 ;  Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  109,  seq. ;  Kaatner, 
p.  94 ;  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  144. 


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Sdences 
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502       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


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"  If  any  of  these  Mamaconas  or  older  nuns,  or  of  the 
Acclas  or  younger  girls,  were  found  to  have  trespassed 
against  their  honour,  it  was  an  inevitable  chastisement 
to  bury  them  alive  or  to  put  them  to  death  by  some 
other  kind  of  cruell  torment,"  ^  unless  they  could  swear 
that  they  had  pleased  the  great  Peruvian  god  himself, 
the  sun.^ 

We  must  finally  remark  that,  besides  the  cloistered 
nuns,  there  were  quite  a  number  of  young  Peruvian 
women  who  took  the  vow  of  perpetual  virginity,  al- 
though living  in  the  midst  of  married  people,  as  the 
pious  maids  among  the  Christians.  The  Inca  Gar- 
cilasso  de  la  Vega,  who  had  an  old  aunt  leading  such 
a  manner  of  life,  assures  us  that  the  laws  of  the  country 
eflfectually  protected  their  virtue,  and  that  they  were 
highly  respected  by  the  whole  community.^ 

As  in  Mexico,  so  in  Peru,  was  it  not  women  only 
but  some  men  also  that  were  leading  a  monastic  life. 
Here  also  were  hermits  meditating  in  solitary  places, 
who  appear  to  have  been  under  a  rule,  with  an  abbott 
called  "  Tucricac,"  and  younger  men,  named  "  Hua- 
mac,"  going  through  their  novitiate.  These  "  Huan- 
caquilli"  or  hermits  took  vows  of  chastity,  obedience, 
poverty,  and  penance.*  As  the  consecrated  virgins, 
they  enjoyed  the  highest  confidence  and  esteem  of 
their  countrymen. 

Nor  should  we  wonder  at  this,  nor  doubt  the  '-tate- 
ment  of  the  native  historian  of  Pl  ;u,  when  we  see  an- 
gelic purity  commanding  respect  and  veneration  even 
among  the  most  depraved  classes  of  society  ;  but  we 
may  well  marvel  at  meeting,  among  the  lewd  and  cruel 


'  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xv.  p.  332. 

'  Baatian,  Bd.  i.  S.  452,  quoting 
Cromimi:  "Que  la  emprefio  Pa- 
chacamac,  que  ep  el  Sol." 


'  Comentarios,  cap.  vii.  p.  112. 
*  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  240,  n.  1. 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     503 


aborigines  of  both  American  continents,  with  priestly 
and  monastic  institutions,  which,  although  far  inferior 
to  those  of  Christianity  in  the  observance  of  the  most 
difficult  of  virtues,  still  imitated  and,  in  particular  cases, 
may  have  equalled  the  latter  in  the  practice  of  heavenly 
counsels,  which  Christ  himself  would  not  impose  upon 
any  of  his  disciples. 

It  is  a  matter  of  high  interest  for  students  to  find  out 
the  origin  of  celibacy  and  virginity  among  the  Ameri- 
can civilized  natives ;  but  our  inquiries  did  not  afford 
us  all  the  information  desired  in  regard  to  our  southern 
continent. 

The  traditions  of  the  Mexicans  and  of  the  neighbor- 
ing nations  uniformly  point  to  some  mysterious  foreign 
apostle,  as  to  the  teacher  and  model  of  these  anoma- 
lous features  of  their  religious  system.  It  may  suffice 
for  the  present  to  notice  the  one  of  Zapoteca,  accord- 
ing to  which  the  original  inhabitants  of  that  region 
were  the  disciples  and  followers  of  a  stranger,  a  white- 
skinned  personage  named  Wixipecocha.  A  vague 
legend  relates  that  he  came  by  sea,  bearing  a  cross 
in  his  hand,  and  debarked  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Tehuantepec.  He  is  described  as  a  man  of  a  vener- 
able aspect,  having  a  bushy,  white  beard,  dressed  in 
a  long  robe  and  a  cloak,  and  wearing  on  his  head  a 
covering  shaped  like  a  monk's  cowl.  Wixipecocha 
taught  his  disciples  to  deny  themselves  the  vanities 
of  this  world,  to  mortify  the  flesh  through  penance 
and  fasting,  and  to  abstain  from  all  sensual  pleasures. 
Adding  example  to  precept,  he  utterly  abjured  female 
society,  and  suffered  no  woman  to  approach  him,  ex- 
cept in  the  act  of  auricular  confession,  which  formed 
part  of  his  doctrine.  This  extraordinary  conduct 
caused  him  to  be  much  respected,  especially  as  it  was 
a  wonder  unheard  of  among  these  people,  that  a  man 


•( 


i:\ 


604       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


could  pass  his  life  in  celibacy.^  Let  it  be  added  that  the 
Toltec  Quetzalcoatl,  who  was  most  probably  the  same 
personage  as  the  Zapotecan  Wixipecocha,  was,  like  him, 
austere  in  manner,  good  and  gentle,  and  withal  most 
chaste,  not  marrying,  but  avoiding  the  company  of 
women.  He  also  introduced  many  new  religious  ordi- 
nances, and,  according  to  some  authorities,  the  estab- 
lishment of  monasteries  and  nunneries.^ 

We  may  readily  presume  that  the  white  foreign 
apostle,  although  leading  a  virginal  life  himself,  did 
not  neglect  publishing  the  sacred  rites  which  are  to 
consecrate  the  more  common  condition  of  life, — the 
conjugal  union.  If  he  was,  as  many  historians  admit, 
a  Christian  missionary'  f  the  Toltec  nation,  it  would 
be  evident  that  the  Aztecs,  the  barbarous  conquerors 
of  the  former,  afterwards  abolished,  to  a  great  extent, 
both  the  ceremonies  that  sanctify  matrimony  and  the 
holy  laws  that  govern  it. 

We  could,  indeed,  discover  but  few  or  no  analogies 
between  a  Christian  marriage  and  an  Aztec  wedding. 
The  very  essentials  of  the  sacred  alliance  were  almost 
everywhere,  in  the  Mexican  empire,  destroyed  by  law- 
ful polygamy  and  concubinage ;  and  the  bond  of  mat- 
rimony, although  generally  declared  indissoluble,  was 
no  strict  impediment  to  divorces  and  adulterous  unions.^ 
It  may,  however,  be  observed  that  marriages  between 
blood  relations  or  those  descended  from  a  common  an- 
cestor were  not  allowed  among  the  Nahua  nations,  and 
the  Mayas  of  Central  America  had  similar  impediments 
of  matrimony.  Among  the  Pipiles  of  Salvador,  an  an- 
cestral tree,  with  seven  main  branches,  denoting  degrees 
of  kindred,  was  painted  upon  cloth ;  and  within  these 
seven  branches  or  degrees  none  was  allowed  to  marry, 


»  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  209, 
210. 


« Ibid.,  vol.  V.  p.  258. 

'  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  263,  671,  alibi. 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     505 

except  as  a  recompense  for  some  great  political  or  war- 
like service  rendered.  Within  the  fourth  degree  of  con- 
sanguinity no  one,  under  any  pretext,  could  marry.  In 
Yucatan  there  was  a  peculiar  prejudice  against  a  man 
marrying  a  woman  who  bore  the  same  name  as  himself, 
and  so  far  was  this  fancy  carried,  that  he  who  did  not 
submit  to  it  was  looked  upon  as  a  renegade  and  an 
outcast.  Neither  could  a  man  marry  there  the  sister 
of  his  deceased  wife,  his  step-mother,  or  his  mother's 
sister ;  but  with  all  other  relatives  on  the  maternal 
side  marriage  was  lawful.^ 

It  rarely  happened  that  a  marriage  took  place  with- 
out the  sanction  of  parents  and  relatives,  and  he  who 
married  without  such  consent  had  to  undergo  penance, 
and  was  looked  upon  as  ungrateful  and  ill  bred.  The 
care  and  trouble  of  finding  a  bride  for  the  young  man 
generally  devolved  upon  his  parents,  or,  in  some  places, 
upon  his  priest.  It  was  also  the  priest's  duty  to  direct 
the  young  couple  in  their  preparation  for  the  solemn 
event,  by  prescribing  to  them  the  observance  of  fasts 
and  prayers ;  and  the  most  important  part  of  the  cere- 
mony was  performed  by  him,  as  by  the  authorized  rep- 
resentative of  religion,  which  was  always  inseparable 
from  the  marriage  contract  among  all  civilized  nations 
of  the  earth.  The  Mexican  priest  made  a  long  address 
to  the  betrothed  couple,  in  which  he  defined  the  duties 
of  the  conjugal  state,  and  pointed  out  to  them  the  obe- 
dience a  wife  should  observe  towards  her  husband,  and 
the  care  and  attention  the  latter  should  give  to  her,  and 
how  he  was  bound  to  maintain  and  support  her  and  the 
children  they  might  raise.  The  bridegroom  was  en- 
joined to  bring  up  and  educate  those  children  near  him, 
teaching  all  according  to  their  abilities  to  become  use- 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  665,  ref.  to     Herrera,  Hist.  Gen.,  dec.  iv.  lib. 

viii.  cap.  x.,  and  others. 


ll 


Hi 


,1 


1 


H 


■H 


t^^r    1: 


11 


PI 


506       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

ful  members  of  society,  and  forming  them  to  habits  of 
industry  and  religion.  A  wife's  duties,  he  said,  were 
to  labor  and  aid  her  husband  in  obtaining  sustenance 
for  their  family.  Both  were  exhorted  to  be  faithful  to 
each  other,  to  maintain  peace  and  harmony  between 
themselves,  to  overlook  each  other's  failings,  and  to 
help  each  other,  ever  bearing  in  mind  that  they  were 
to  be  united  for  life  by  a  tie  which  only  death  could 
sever.' 

Polygamy  was,  however,  permitted  among  the  Mexi- 
cans, though  chiefly  confined,  probably,  to  the  wealth- 
iest classes, — a  decline  from  better  times,  in  which 
were  written  the  formal  advices  of  a  father  to  his  son, 
wherein  it  is  said,  "  Notice,  my  son,  what  I  say  to 
you ;  how  the  world  is  now  used  to  engender  and  to 
multiply,  and,  because  of  this  generation  and  multi- 
plication, God  has  ordained  that  one  woman  should 
have  one  man,  and  one  man  should  have  one  woman."  ^ 

"The  Mexicaines  were  married  by  the  handes  of 
their  priestes  in  this  sort :  The  bridegroome  and  the 
bride- stood  together  before  the  priest,  who  tooke  them 
by  the  hands,  asking  them  if  they  would  marrie ;  then, 
having  understood  their  willes,  he  tooke  a  corner  of  .lie 
vaile  wherewith  the  woman  had  her  head  covered,  and 
a  corner  of  the  man's  gowne,  the  which  he  tied  together 
on  a  knot;  and  so  led  them  thus  tied  to  the  bride- 
groomes  house,  where  there  was  a  harth  kindled  ;  and 
then  he  caused  the  wife  to  go  seven  times  about  the 
harth,  and  so  the  married  couple  sate  downe  together, 
and  thus  was  the  marriage  contracted."  * 

From  what  has  been  said  before,  it  can  easily  be 
imagined  that  the  lewd  "  Mexicaines  freely  indulged, 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  251,  256,     Preecott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
257,  ()()9,  alibi.  i.  p.  154  and  n.  39,  ibid. 

'  Sahagun,  lib.  vi.  cap.  xxi.,  ap.         '  Acosta,  bk.  v.  ch.  xxvii.  p.  370. 


mmm 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     507 

on  auch  occasions,  in  feasting,  dancing,  and  drinking." 
No  wonder  if  divorces  were  frequent. 

Of  the  last  of  the  Christian  sacraments,  of  ExtT*eme 
Unction,  we  found  no  trace  among  the  American  abo- 
rigines ;  nor  can  a  religion,  idolatry,  that  murdered  so 
many  of  its  votaries,  be  expected  to  afford  sacred  means 
for  alleviating  the  pains  and  pangs  of  death.  Death, 
on  the  contrary,  and  consequent  burials  were  often,  in 
Mexico,  as  in  many  other  infidel  countries,  the  occasion 
of  horrible  cruelties. 

It  is  but  too  well  known,  for  the  disgrace  of  civiliza- 
tion without  Christianity,  that  in  ancient  Mexico,  Peru, 
Cundinamarca,  as  in  Scythia  and  China,  and  until  lately, 
under  Protestant  England's  protection,  in  some  parts  of 
East  India,  wives  and  concubines,  servants,  ministers 
and  minstrels  of  kings  and  grandees  were  slain  at  their 
graves,  buried  alive,  or  burnt  together  with  the  corpses 
of  their  former  masters.^ 

As  a  diversion  from  those  inhuman  scenes  we  may 
be  allowed  to  relate  a  story  told  by  the  reliable  Acosta.* 
"  A  Portugall,  who,  being  captive  among  the  barbarians, 
had  beene  hurt  with  a  dart,  so  as  he  lost  one  eye ;  and 
as  they  would  have  sacrificed  him  to  accompany  a 
nobleman  that  was  dead,  he  said  unto  them  that  those 
that  were  in  the  other  life  would  make  small  account 
of  the  dead  if  they  gave  him  a  blind  man  for  a  com- 
panion, and  that  it  were  better  to  give  him  an  attend- 
ant that  had  both  his  eyes.  The  reason  being  found 
good  by  the  barbarians  they  let  him  go." 

Diabolical  hatred,  aiming  at  the  destruction  of  God's 
beloved  creature,  had  stimulated  the  Aztecs  to  dispose 
by  cremation  of  the  greater  number  of  their  corpses, 


*  Kastner,  pp.  105-107  ;   Acosta, 
1.  viii.  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  610 ; 


■"—•■"• )    fir"    - 

ch.  viii.  ;  Bancroft, 
Aa.  passim 


«  Oh.  vii.  p.  314. 


iUi 


'If 


I,! 


508       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

but  it  appears  that  their  predecessors,  the  Toltecs,  as 
also  the  Peruvians,  showed  greater  respect  to  the  relics 
of  their  deceased  relatives,  by  giving  them  a  decent 
burial/  A  remnant  of  better  information  in  Mexico 
was  that  the  disposal  of  dead  bodies  was  considered  as 
a  sacred  function,  and  therefore  confided  to  the  priests, 
who  always  assisted  with  religious  ceremonies,  either  at 
a  dead  man's  last  resting-place  or  at  his  gloomy  funeral 
pyre,  and  sang  the  funeral  offices.  "  At  these  mortua- 
ries they  did  eate  and  drinke ;  and  if  it  were  a  person  of 
quality,  they  gave  apparell  to  all  such  as  came  to  the 
interrement.  When  any  one  dyed,  they  layd  him  open 
in  a  chamber,  untill  that  all  his  kinsfolkes  and  friendes 
were  come,  who  brought  presents  to  the  dead,  and  sa- 
luted him  as  if  he  were  living.  The  obsequies  con- 
tinued tenne  days,  with  songs  and  plaints  and  lamenta- 
tions, and  the  priests  carried  away  the  dead  with  so  many 
ceremonies,  and  in  so  great  number,  as  they  coulde 
scarce  accoumpt  them.  To  the  captaines  and  noble- 
men they  gave  trophees  and  marks  of  honour  according 
to  their  enterprises  and  valor  imployed  in  the  warres 
and  governments :  for  this  effect  they  had  armes  and 
particular  blasons.  They  carried  these  markes  and 
blasons  to  the  place  where  he  desired  to  be  buried  or 
burnt,  marching  before  the  body  and  accompanying  it, 
as  it  were,  in  procession,  where  the  priests  and  officers 
of  the  temple  went  with  divers  furnitures  and  orna- 
ments ;  some  casting  incense,  others  singing  and  sound- 
ing mournefull  flutes  and  drummes."  ^  The  Mexicans 
also  sprinkled  the  face  of  the  corpse  with  water.^ 

Twenty  days  after  the  burial  further  offerings  were 
made,  together  with  a  sacrifice  of  four  or  five  slaves ;  on 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  609 ;  Acosta,         '  Short,   p.   463,    ref.   to    Kings- 
ch.  viii. ;  alii.  boroagh,  Mex.   Antiq.,  t.  viii.  p. 

'  Acosta,  ch.  ^'iii.  248. 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     509 

the  fortieth  day  two  or  three  more  victims  were  slain  ; 
on  the  sixtieth,  one  or  two ;  and  the  final  immolation, 
consisting  of  ten  or  twelve  slaves,  took  place  at  the  end 
of  eighty  days,  and  put  an  end  to  the  mourning.^ 

Due  abstraction  being  made  of  the  inhuman  sacri- 
fices that  accompanied  Mexican  burials,  we  leave  it  to 
the  informed  reader,  who  has  ever  witnessed  the  cus- 
toms of  rich  people's  funerals  in  Europe,  to  notice  the 
analogies  existing  between  the  funeral  rites  of  civilized 
American  aborigines  and  the  religious  ceremonies  with 
which  Christians  were  of  old,  and  are  yet,  laid  away  in 
their  blessed  dormitories. 

Nor  could  we  help  observing  several  more  curious 
similarities  between  the  customs  and  usages  of  the 
Nahua,  Maya,  and  Peruvian  nations  and  those  of 
Christian  peoples  in  religious  matters,  which,  however, 
may  seem  to  be  of  less  importance. 

Education  was  of  a  religious  character  wherever  it 
existed  in  ancient  America.  In  the  empire  of  Mexico 
the  schools  were  annexed  to  the  temples,  and  the  in- 
struction of  the  young  of  both  sexes  was  a  monopoly  in 
the  hands  of  the  priests.  Boys  were  generally  sent  to 
the  colleges  between  the  ages  of  six  and  nine  years, 
and  were  placed  in  charge  of  priests  specially  appointed 
for  that  purpose,  who  instructed  them  in  the  branches 
most  suitable  to  their  future  calling.  All  were  in- 
structed in  religion,  and  particular  attention  was  given 
to  good  behavior  and  morals.^ 

The  daughters  of  lords  and  princes  were  educated  in 
large  buildings  attached  to  the  principal  sanctuaries. 
They  were  presided  over  by  vestal  priestesses  brought 
up  in  the  temple,  who  watched  with  great  vigilance 
over  those  committed  to  their  care.    Day  and  night  the 


.1  : 


M 


1  H.  H.  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  013. 


'■•Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  242;  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  148. 


I  '■.:  IV. 


A^ 


mi 


510       HIHTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 

exterior  of  the  building  was  strictly  guarded  by  old 
men,  and  the  maidens  could  not  even  leave  their  apart- 
ments without  a  guard.  If  any  one  broke  this  rule 
and  went  out  alone,  her  feet  were  pricked  with  thorns 
till  the  blood  flowed.  When  they  went  out,  it  was  to- 
gether with,  and  watched  over  by,  the  matrons.  They 
had  to  sweep  the  precincts  of  the  temple  occupied  by 
them,  and  to  attend  to  the  sacred  fire ;  they  were  taught 
the  tenets  of  their  religion,  and  shown  how  to  draw 
blood  from  their  bodies  when  offering  sacrifice  to  the 
gods ;  they  learned  to  make  feather- work,  to  spin,  to 
weave  mantles,  and  to  be  skilful  and  diligent  in  all 
household  affairs.  They  generally  remained  until 
taken  away  by  their  parents  to  be  married.* 

In  Guatemala  the  youths  assisted  the  priests  in  their 
duties,  and  received,  in  turn,  an  education  suited  to 
their  condition  in  society.  There  were  schools  in 
every  principal  town,  and  the  highest  of  these  was  a 
seminary  in  which  were  maintained  seventy  masters, 
and  from  five  to  six  thousand  children  were  educated 
and  provided  for  at  the  expense  of  the  royal  treasury, — 
a  regular  university.  Here,  also,  girls  were  placed 
in  convents,  under  the  superintendence  of  nuns,  until 
about  to  be  married.^  We  have  already  intimated  that 
education  was  of  a  similar  character  in  Peru. 

As  innocence  had  its  houses  of  protection,  so  also  had 
guilt,  in  certain  countries,  its  places  of  refuge.  The 
Jewish  cities  of  refuge  and  the  Christian  churches  of 
old  were  represented  in  California  by  the  '*  vanqueech" 
or  temple-yard,  to  which  any  criminal  might  flee,  and 
then  return  among  his  own  without  any  further  fear 
of  punishment.' 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  245  ;  Pres- 
cott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p. 
148. 


^  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  663. 
'  Gleeson,   vol.   i.   p.   123 ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  p.  167  ;  supra,  p.  421. 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  HACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     511 


At  their  accession  to  the  throne  the  kings  of  Mexico 
were  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  anointed  with  a  black 
ointment,  and  crowned  amid  solemn  religious  cere- 
monies, like  Christian  kings.^ 

The  king  received  holy  water  to  drink,  and  so  also 
his  captains  whenever  they  would  start  on  the  war- 
path. Holy  water  was  likewise  used  in  several  other 
religious  rites,  and  was,  therefore,  reverently  kept  under 
the  altar  of  the  temple.'^ 

Exorcisms  or  the  casting  out  of  devils  were  prac- 
tised not  only  by  the  civilized  but  also  by  the  most 
barbarous  American  aborigines,  especially  in  cases  of 
sickness,  as  attested  by  ancient  historians  and  witnessed 
even  until  this  day. 

A  new  house  could  not  be  occupied  in  Central 
America  until  it  had  been  purged  of  the  evil  spirit, 
and  formally  blessed  with  religious  rites."^ 

The  eves  and  vigils  of  great  feasts  were  strictly 
observed  with  fasts  and  other  works  of  penance  by 
the  civilized  nations  of  both  the  northern  and  the 
southern  continent. 

In  Mexico,  at  the  festival  in  honor  of  "  Toci,"  Mother 
of  the  gods,  the  women  delivered  during  the  year  un- 
derwent a  purification  and  presented  their  children  to 
the  idols.  In  the  evening  a  signal  was  sounded  from 
the  temple,  and  the  mothers,  attired  in  their  best,  ac- 
companied by  friends  and  preceded  by  torch-bearers  and 
servants  carrying  the  babes,  made  the  tour  of  the  town 
or  quarter.  They  stopped  at  every  temple  to  leave  an 
offering  and  a  lighted  torch  for  the  presiding  goddess. 
At  the  temple  of  Toci  greater  offerings  were  made,  and 


^  Several  ancient  authors, — Acos- 
ta,  Torquemada,  Sahagun,  etc., 
quoted  by  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  pp.  145- 
147 ;  Fieke,  vol.  i.  p.  115. 

»  Gaffarel,  t.  i.  p.  438,  ref.  to  Men- 


dieta,  t.  ii.  cap.  19,  p.  109  ;  Bastian, 
Bd.  i.  S.  459,  ref.  to  Torquemada. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  785,  ref.  to 
CogoUudo,  Hist.  Yuc,  p.  184. 


!   '! 


M: 


{' 


'l' 


ui  1 : 


■m  \  ^ 


I'-"' 


* .  I 


i1f  ^ 


M 


^\M 


512       HISTORY   OB'   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUH. 

here  the  priests  performed  the  ceremony  of  purification 
by  pronouncing  certain  prayers  over  the  women.' 

Religious  processions  were  of  frequent  occurrence, 
among  the  Aztecs  particularly.  At  some  places  they 
were  almost  continual,  if,  at  least,  we  can  give  that 
name  to  the  constant  influx  of  strangers,  that  came 
from  every  direction  to  worship  the  popular  gods  of 
these  holy  cities. 

Pilgrimages,  a  practice  of  piety  already  known  to 
the  Jews  and  so  common  in  Christianity  from  its  very 
beginning,  were  often  made  to  numerous  sanctuaries 
of  ancient  America.  The  city  of  CholuU,  which  had 
been  the  principal  see  of  the  great  apostle  and  god 
Quetzalcoatl,  continued  until  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
discovery  to  be  the  centre  of  concourse  for  Mexican 
pilgrims."^  The  number  of  these  was  so  great  at  the 
time  of  the  conquest  as  to  give  an  air  of  mendicity  to 
the  motley  population  of  the  city.  Nor  was  Cholula 
the  resort  only  of  the  indigent  devotees.  Many  of  the 
kindred  races  had  temples  of  their  own  in  that  city,  in 
the  same  manner  as  several  Christian  nations  have  in 
Rome ;  and  each  temple  was  provided  with  its  own 
peculiar  ministers  for  the  service  of  the  deity  to  which 
it  was  consecrated.  In  no  other  place  was  there  such  a 
concourse  of  priests,  so  many  processions,  or  such  a 
pomp  of  ceremonial,  of  sacrifice,  and  of  religious  fes- 
tivities. Cholula  was  to  the  Nahuatlacs  what  Mecca 
is  to  the  Mohammedans  or  Jerusalem  to  the  Christians, 
— ^the  Holy  City  of  Anahuac.  The  religious  rites  were 
not  always  performed,  however,  in  the  pure  spirit  origi- 
nally prescribed  by  its  tutelary  deity,  whose  altars,  as 
well  as  those  of  the  Aztec  gods,  were  often  stained  with 
human  blood.^ 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  279. 
» Ibid.,  vol.  V.  p.  496. 


*  Prescott,  (.'onquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  ii.  p.  8. 


I 


*l 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     613 

Iziimal,  the  sacred  sources  of  Chichen  Itzti,  on  the 
continent,  and  the  temple  of  Ahulneb,  on  Cozuniel 
Island,  were  the  most  frequented  places  of  pilgrimage 
in  Yucatan.  Public  roads  led  to  them  from  all  the 
principal  cities  of  the  peninsula.'  Zapoteca's  most 
visited  shrine  was  the  city  of  Zeetopaa ;  ^  and  Pizarro 
found  in  the  temples  of  the  island  La  Plata,  near 
Puerto- Viejo,  a  number  of  pieces  of  silver  artistically 
worked  into  the  shape  of  L  ds,  heads,  and  other 
members  of  the  human  body,  evidently  left  there  as 
votive  offerings  by  pious  visitors  who  had  obtained 
either  real  or  imaginary  cures.^ 

In  Peru  the  pious  practice  of  pilgrimages  was  as 
common  as  it  was  in  the  northern  civilized  countries. 
The  great  temple  of  Pachacamac  or  god-creator,  twenty 
miles  south  of  Lima,  was  visited  by  thousands  of  trav- 
ellers, and  the  number  of  piit;rim8  flocking  to  the  holy 
rock  of  his  representative,  the  Sun,  on  the  island 
Titioaca,  was  so  great  that  it  had  been  found  necessary 
to  erect  extensive  buildings  for  their  accommodation.* 

"  The  oracles  delivered  from  the  dark  and  mysterious 
shrine  of  Pachacamac,"  says  Prescott,  "  were  held  in 
no  less  repute  among  the  natives  of  Peru  than  the 
oracles  of  Delphi  obtained  among  the  Greeks.  Pil- 
grimages were  made  to  the  hallowed  spot  from  the 
most  distant  provinces,  and  the  city  of  Pachacamac 
had  become  among  the  Peruvians  what  Cholula  was 
among  the  people  of  Anahuac.  The  shrine  of  the 
ancient  deity,  of  the  Creator  of  the  world,  enriched  by 
the  tributes  of  the  pilgrims,  had  become  one  of  the 
most  opulent  in  the  land ;  and  Atahuallpa,  anxious  to 


•  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  H  736,  n.  1, 
ref.  to  Landa  and  Herrera ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  p.  466 ;  vol.  v.  p.  618. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  532. 
1.— 88 


*  Bastian,  Bd.  i.  S.  465  ;  cf.  supra, 
p.  500. 

*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  pp.  16,  91,  101 ;  Cronau,  S.  85. 


11  n 

'1 1] 


lit." 


I 


1F^ 


m 


r-^-v  -'J 


514        HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE    COLirMBUS. 

collect  his  ransom  as  speedily  as  possible,  urged  Pizarro 
to  send  a  detachment  in  that  direction  to  secure  the 
treasures  before  they  could  be  secreted  by  the  priests 
of  the  temple." ' 

The  number  sMid  variety  of  annual  festivals,  both  in 
ancient  Mexico  nd  Peru,  present  certain  analogies 
with  the  Christian  ecclesiastical  calendar,  but  one  es- 
pecially of  their  religious  feasts  forcibly  reminds  us 
of  a  solemn  observance  of  our  own  religion, — that, 
namely,  of  the  New  Fire.  On  Good  Friday  all  lights 
are  extinguished  in  our  churches  to  recall  to  our  minds 
the  death  of  our  Saviour,  the  Light  of  the  world,  and, 
on  the  day  following,  the  grand  anniversary  of  Christ's 
resurrection  is  ushered  in  by  the  pious  rite  of  the 
striking  and  blessing  of  the  new  fire,  from  which  all 
candles  and  lamps  are  lighted  again.  This  symbolical 
ceremony,  introduced  in  the  seventh  century,  is  uni- 
versally observed  in  the  Church  since  the  middle  of  the 
eighth. '^ 

The  festival  of  the  New  Fire  observed  by  the  civil- 
ized nations  of  ancient  America,  though  differing  in 
important  details,  was  of  an  analogous  import. 

The  Mexicans  believed  that  the  world  had  been 
destroyed  at  fou^  successive  epochs,  and  expected  an- 
other catastrophe,  as  destructive  as  the  preceding,  to 
take  place  at  the  close  of  a  cycle  of  fifty-two  years. 
Towards  the  end  of  each  such  period  they  abandoned 
themselves  to  fear  and  despair ;  the  holy  fires  were 
suffered  to  go  out  in  the  temples,  and  none  were  lighted 
in  their  dwellings.  On  the  evening  of  the  last,  "  un- 
lucky," day  of  the  year  a  procession  of  priests  moved 
from  the  capital  towards  a  lofty  mountain  about  two 
leagues  distant.     On  reaching  the  summit,  they  stood 


'  Prescott,  Conqueet  of  Peru,  vol. 
i.  p.  443. 


*  Kozma  de  Papi,  p.  361,  n.  1. 


w., 


OTHER  CHRISTIAN  SACRAMENTS  AND  INSTITUTIONS.     515 

still  until  the  constellation  of  the  Pleiades  approached 
the  zenith.  Then  they  kindled  new  fire  by  the  friction 
of  sticks  placed  on  the  breast  of  a  noble  human  victim 
just  slain.  The  flame  was  soon  communicated  to  a 
funeral  pile,  on  which  the  body  of  the  slaughtered 
man  was  thrown.  As  the  light  streamed  up  towards 
heaven,  shouts  of  joy  and  triumph  burst  forth  from 
the  countless  multitudes  which  covered  the  hills,  the 
terraces  of  the  temples,  and  the  house-tops,  with  eyes 
anxiously  bent  on  the  mount  of  sacrifice.  Couriers, 
with  torches  lighted  at  the  blazing  beacon,  rapidly 
bore  them  over  every  pv.rt  of  the  country,  and  the 
cheering  element  was  seen  brightening  on  altar  and 
hearth-stone  for  the  circuit  of  many  a  league,  long 
before  the  rising  sun  gave  assurance  that  a  new  cycle 
had  commenced  its  march  and  that  the  laws  of  nature 
were  not  to  be  reversed  for  the  Aztecs.  The  following 
thirteen  days  were  given  up  to  ribald  festivities.' 

Perhaps  the  most  magnificent  of  all  the  national 
solemnities  in  Peru  was  the  feast  of  Raymi,  held  at  the 
summer  solstice,  when  the  sun,  having  receded  to  the 
southern  extremity  of  his  course,  retraced  his  path,  as 
if  to  gladden  the  hearts  of  his  chosen  people  with  his 
presence.  On  this  occasion  a  fire  was  kindled  by  means 
of  a  concave  mirror  of  polished  metal,  which,  collecting 
the  rays  of  the  sun  into  a  focus  upon  a  quantity  of  dry 
cotton,  speedily  set  it  on  tire.  When  the  sky  was  over- 
cast, and  the  face  of  the  good  deity  was  hidden  from 
his  worshi})pers, — which  was  esteemed  a  bad  omen, — 
fire  was  obtained  by  means  of  friction.  The  new  sacred 
flame  was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  the  Virgins  of  the 
sun,  and  if,  by  any  neglect,  it  was  suflered  to  go  out 
in  the  course  of  the  year,  the  event  was  regarded  as  a 

'  Prescott,  {\»nque8t.  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  128,  iteq. 


'  '')i 


■'•'ii 


M 


' 


I    ,!( 


516       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

calamity  that  boded  some  strange  disaster  to  the  mon- 
archy.^ 

In  times  of  pestilence  and  of  other  public  afflictions 
not  only  were  impious  sacrifices  offered  to  the  Mexican 
deities,  but  all  the  people  flocked  to  the  temples  to  im- 
plore also  by  fervent  supplications  the  mercy  of  the 
sanguinary  gods. 

Nor  was  any  national  matter  of  importance  decided 
upon  before  the  light  and  advice  of  the  idols  had  been 
implored.  It  was  the  duty  of  the  officiating  priest,  on 
all  such  occasions,  to  make  or  recite  a  beautiful  long 
prayer ;  and  the  whole  meeting  cordially  answered 
"  Mayiuh,"  so  be  it,  amen.* 

'  Preacott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.     tian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  736,  from  Herrera ; 
i.  pp.  103,  106.  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xxvii. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  209 ;  Bas- 


u 


i; 


IvJ 


m- 


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ns 
an 
m- 
he 

ed 
en 
on 

ng 
ed 


ra; 


CHAPTER    XXI. 

WAS    AMERICA    CHRISTIANIZED    FROM    ASIA? 

No  modern  student  of  American  antiquity  fails  to 
notice  the  close  and  striking  resemblances  between 
several  leading  particulars  of  Christian  faith,  morals, 
and  ceremonies  and  those  of  ancient  American  religions. 
Sahagun,  who  wrote  in  Mexico  about  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  took  such  great  pains  to  be  cor- 
rectly informed  in  regard  to  all  religious  rites  of  our 
aborigines,  states  already  that  all  the  Spanish  mission- 
aries who  wrote  in  America  before  him  had  pointed 
out  the  numerous  vestiges  of  Christianity  to  be  found 
even  among  the  savage  Indian  tribes.^  The  Peruvian 
historian,  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  although  opposed  to 
the  opiniftn  of  his  contemporaries,  cannot  help  relating 
several  religious  performances  which  can  hardly  be  any- 
thing but  Christian,  and  which  he  indirectly  admits  to 
be  such.*^  Icazbalceta,  the  native  Mexican  writer,  assures 
us  that  many  regulations,  preserved  by  immemorial 
tradition  among  his  people,  were  so  much  like  those 
proclaimed  by  the  Spanish  missionaries,  that,  to  follow 
the  latter,  there  was  no  need  of  receding  from  what  was 
admitted  long  before.'  H.  H.  Bancroft,  almost  as  rich  as 
Lord  Kingsborough  in  his  information  regarding  our 
aborigines,  could  not  well  avoid  the  acknowledgment 
that  many  rites  and  ceremonies  were  found  to  exist 
among  the  civilized  nations  of  America,  which  were 


'  Dr.  de  Mier,  ap.  Sahagun,  p.  v. 
*  ComentarioB,  lib.  ii.  cap.  vi.  p. 


40. 


'  Giov.  di  Zutnarraga,  Priino  Ves- 
covo  di  Mesflico,  carta  107. 

517 


!i  it 


I; 


518       HISTOKY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

very  similar  to  certain  ordinances  observed  by  Jews  and 
Christians  in  the  Old  World.  But,  true  to  the  credu- 
lous spirit  of  infidelity,  he  sees  no  good  reason  to  sup- 
pose the  many  curious  similarities  to  be  anything  else 
but  fortuitous  coincidei  ces.  Coincidences,  so  many,  so 
striking,  in  faith,  in  morals,  and  liturgy  !  Coincidences, 
indeed,  little  short  of  wonders  !  ^ 

Nadaillac  "^  explains  these  wonderful  coincidences  by 
asserting  that  "  the  Christian  myths  of  the  Indians  ap- 
pear to  have  their  root  in  the  natural  tendencies  of  the 
human  mind  in  its  evolution  from  a  savage  state ;"  and 
we  would  gladly  admit  the  explanation,  how  vague  and 
complicated  soever  it  may  be,  if  it  wBre  not  for  the  par- 
tiality of  the  novel  law  of  evolution  in  favoring  the  civ- 
ilized Americans  only,  and  for  its  evident  uselessness 
ever  since  the  beginning  of  historic  times.  And,  how 
do  natural  tendencies  develop,  for  example,  the  practice 
of  auricular  confession  ? 

Nadaillac,  however,  redeems  himself  by  rejecting  an- 
other interpretation  of  the  remarkable  similarities,  when 
he  says  that  "no  dissemination  of  merely  Christian  ideas 
since  the  conquest  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  Indian 
myths."  ^  It  is  not  possible,  indeed,  that,  as  some  anti- 
Catholic  writers  with  great  simplicity  pretend,  the 
Christian  missionaries  of  all  parts  of  Europe  should 
have  conspired  to  make  the  clever  Mexicans  and  Peru- 
vians believe  that  the  new  religion  which  they  were 
preaching  was  the  religion  of  their  forefathers  and  their 
own ;  to  make  them  believe  that  the  new  doctrines  of 
Christianity  were  their  own  venerable  traditions ;  or  that 
it  was  the  new-comers  who  had  framed  the  religious 
calendars  of  their  ancestors,  and  other  inconsistencies 
of  the  same  character.     Nay,  it  is  well  established  that, 


•  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  439. 
'  Prehiatoric  America,  p.  531. 


Ibid. 


WAH    AMERICA    CHRIHTIANIZED    FKOM    ASIA?      519 

on  the  contrary,  many  a  priest,  during  the  first  years 
after  the  latest  discovery  of  America,  was  on  his  guard 
against  imposition  from  the  natives,  when  these  would 
tell  him  that  they  knew,  long  before,  the  doctrines 
and  practices  preached  to  them  of  late  by  the  foreign 
religious  teachers. 

One  such  interesting  instance  is  related  by  Father 
Leclercq  ^  in  regard  to  the  worship  of  the  cross  which 
he  found  established  among  the  natives  of  Gaspesia. 
"  Here,"  he  says,  "  are  a  few  short  reasons  which  com- 
pel me  to  believe  that  the  veneration  of  the  cross  had 
commenced  among  these  barbarians  before  the  first 
arrival  of  the  French  in  their  country.  One  day  I 
wanted  them  to  acknowledge  that  other  missionaries 
before  me  had  taught  them  to  reverence  the  cross. 
*  What !'  the  chief  interposed,  '  thou  art  a  patriarch  ; 
thou  wantest  us  to  believe  all  thou  sayest,  and  thou  re- 
fusest  to  admit  what  we  affirm  ;  thou  art  not  forty  snows 
old  yet,  and  dwellest  only  two  years  among  the  savages, 
and  thou  pretendest  to  know  our  maxims  and  traditions 
better  than  our  forefathers  who  taught  them  to  us ! 
Dost  thou  not  meet  every  day  the  old  man  Quiondo, 
who  is  more  than  a  hundred  and  twenty  snows  of  age, 
and  has  seen  the  first  ship  landing  in  this  country  ? 
He  often  told  thee  that  the  Miramichi  savages  did  not 
receive  from  the  French  the  use  of  the  cross,  and  that 
what  he  knows  of  it  himself  he  has  heard  it  from  his 
parents,  who  lived  as  long,  at  least,  as  himself.  Thou 
seest,  therefore,  that  we  received  the  cross  long  before 
the  French  sailed  to  our  shores.  But  shouldst  thou 
hesitate  to  give  in  for  that  reason,  here  is  another 
which  cannot  fail  to  convince  thee  of  the  truth.  Thou 
art  intelligent,  since  thou  art  a  patriarch  and  speakest 


'  Pp.  274,  275.     See  Document  XIV. 


520       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFOKK   COLUMBUS. 


I'- 


with  God.  Now,  thou  knowest  that  ^he  Gaspeeian 
Dation  extends  from  Cape  des  Rosiers  to  Cape  Breton ; 
thou  knowest  that  the  savages  of  Ristigouehe  are  our 
countrymen  and  brethren,  who  speak  the  same  language 
as  we ;  thou  wert  there  before  coming  here  ;  thou  hast 
preached  to  them,  and  thou  hast  seen  the  old  men,  th«t 
were  baptized  by  other  missionaries  before  thee,  while 
we  have  been  deprived  of  that  blessing  till  now.  It  is 
true,  as  thou  sayest,  that  the  cross  is  the  sacred  symbol 
wliich  distinguishes  Christians  from  infidels ;  how,  then, 
could  the  patriarchs  have  given  it  to  us,  rather  than  to 
our  brethren  of  Ristigouehe,  whom  they  baptized,  and 
who  have  not,  however,  venerated  the  mark  of  the 
Christians,  as  did  our  ancestors,  who  received  no  bap- 
tism. It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  it  is  not  through 
the  missionaries,  if  we  are  in  possession  of  the  mys- 
terious emblem.' 

"  That  reasoning  is  of  savages,  but  none  the  less  con- 
clusive, because,"  the  father  continues,  "  it  is  true  that 
the  savages  of  Ristigouehe  are  baptized  and  yet  V  not 
carry  the  cross,  but  were  formerly  used  to  wear  sus- 
pended from  their  necks  the  image  of  a  salmon  as  their 
country's  badge  of  honor."  ^ 

We  have  noticed'^  that  the  first  Spanish  priests  of 
Central  America  were  no  less  astonished  and  incredu- 
lous than  the  French  of  Canada  at  their  frequent  meet- 
ing with  no  doubtful  vestiges  of  Christianity  among 
the  pagan  Indians. 

Not  only  is  it  inconceivable  that  our  missionaries  of 
the  sixteenth  century  should  have  attempted,  in  the 
presence  of  thousands  of  intelligent  witnesses,  to  fraud- 
ulently represent  the  success  of  their  own  preaching  as 
ancient  traditional  belief  and  practice  of  their  converts  ; 


'  Chrestien  Leclercq,  p.  270,  seq. 
See  Document  XIV. 


»  Supra,  p.  374. 


WAH    AMERICA    CHRISTIANIZED    FROM    ASIA?      521 

but  they  all,  convinced  that  they  were  the  very  firet 
apostles  of  our  continent,  felt  naturally  inclined  to 
disbelieve  their  eyes  and  ears,  rather  than  to  admit 
that  Christianity  had  ever  before  set  foot  on  the  west- 
ern eld.  Hence  we  easily  understand  why  most  of 
then  e  very  sparing  in  their  statements  of  the  above- 
mentioned  traditions  and  religious  rites  of  the  Indians, 
and  why  there  are  no  historians  wanting,  both  lay  and 
ecclesiastic,  to  positively  deny  all  parity  between  the 
American  and  our  own  religious  faith  and  liturgy,  even 
though  they  cannot  help  relating  numerous  facts  that 
evidently  contradict  their  denial.  Gonzales  de  Oviedo, 
Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  '^afiteau,  and  Charlevoix  are 
remarkable  examples.^ 

Neither  could  modern  critics  call  into  doubt  the 
truthfulness  of  these  parsimonious  statements  of  the  con- 
temporary historians.  Bancroft,  betimes  as  hypercriti- 
cal an  inlidel  as  any,  admits  that  the  Mexican  prayers, 
as  reported  by  Sahagun,  contain  a  great  deal  that  is 
original,  indigenous,  and  characteristic  in  regard  to  the 
Mexican  religion  ;  and  the  historian's  evidence,  he  adds, 
as  presented  by  a  hearer  and  eye-witness  at  first  hand, 
by  a  man  of  strongly  authenticated  probity,  learning, 
and,  above  all,  of  strong  sympathy  with  the  Mexican 
people,  belovc  ;  ai,  ^   ♦^^rusted  by  those  of   them   with 

ct,  and  admitted  to  the  famil- 
.;•  their  traditions  and  habits  of 
'-iu  reasons  his  evidence,  however 
must  be  heard  and  judged.  In  a 
subjoined  note  the  same  author  relates  the  extraordi- 
nary care  taken  by  Sahagun,  not  to  be  deceived  by,  nor 
to  mistake  the  testimony  of,  his  native  authorities.'^ 
Prescott  makes  a  remark  which  goes  to  prove  that  the 


f  .  . 


:a 


•>prt 


whom  he  came 
iarity  of  a  fr 
thought, — for  .  *  I 
we  may  esteem  it. 


'  Cf.  Beauvois,  Les  Dernien*  Ves- 
tiges, p.  1. 


»  Vol.  iii.  p.  231. 


ll'i! 


i    :     U 


SB 


^^•AhiJ>^:^i:±^ii^ 


€ 


1"     il! 

■  u^  . 


t! 


tml" 


I- 


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lu 


n 


I 


\ 


522       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORK   COLUMBUS. 

prudent  friar  did  not,  on  the  other  hand,  intend  to  de- 
ceive his  readers.  "  It  might  be  supposed,"  he  says, 
"  that  the  obloquy  which  the  missionary  liad  brought 
on  his  head  by  his  honest  recital  of  the  Aztec  traditions 
would  have  made  him  more  circumspect  in  his  '  rifaci- 
mento'  or  correction  of  his  former  narrative.  But  I 
have  not  found  it  so,  or  that  there  has  been  any  effort 
to  mitigate  the  statements  that  bore  hardest  on  his 
countrymen." 

The  truthfulness  of  Sahagun's  colleagues,  the  older 
Christian  historians  of  America,  is  equally  well  estab- 
lished ;  and  it  would  be  no  sound  criticism  to  call  into 
doubt  the  reality  of  the  numerous  and  evident  vestiges 
of  a  more  ancient  publication  of  Christianity  in  our 
western  hemisphere. 

The  royal  chronicler  and  first  archbishop  of  San 
Domingo,  Padilla,  wrote  a  book  to  prove  that  the  Span- 
ish missionaries  were  not  the  first  apostles  of  America.' 
Icazbalceta  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Christian 
principles  of  the  Aztec  religion  had  in  by-gone  ages 
been  introduced  by  preachers  now  unknown.^  Solor- 
zano,  although  combating  this  general  opinion,  can- 
not help  stating  that  many  of  his  predecessors  were  in 
favor  of  it,  and,  among  others,  he  also  quotes  Torque- 
mada.^  Torquemada,  however,  unable  to  imagine  who 
the  former  Christian  missionaries  might  have  been, 
admits  the  possibility  of  a  theory  which,  for  the  same 
reason,  was  held  by  several  of  his  companions, — namely, 
that  the  devil  himself  had  taught  his  deluded  Indian 
worshippers  the  religion  of  Christ !  *  Acosta  is  very  ex- 
plicit in  this  regard :  "  That  which  is  difficult  in  our 
law,  to  believe  so  high  and  sovereign  misteries,  hath 


•  Dr.  de  Mier,  in  Sahagun,  t.  iii. 
p.  vi. 
'  Giov.  di  Zumarraga,  carta  107. 


»  Lib.  i.  cap.  xiv.  1[  56,  p.  186. 
*  Lib.  XV.  cap.  xlix.,  alias  t.  iii. 
lib.  xix.  cap.  xlviii.,  xlix. 


WAH   AMERICA    CHRIHTIANIZED    FROM    ASIA  ?      523 

beene  easy  among  the  Indians,"  he  says,  "  for  that  the 
Divell  had  made  them  comprehend  things  of  greater 
difficultie,  and  the  self-same  things  which  he  had  stolen 
from  our  Evangelicall  law  :  as  their  manner  of  commu- 
nion and  confession,  their  adoration  of  three  and  one, 
and  such  other  like :  the  which  against  the  will  of  the 
enemy  have  holpen  for  the  easie  receiving  of  the  truth 
by  those  who  before  had  embraced  lies."  ^  The  learned 
Protestant  Hornius  sides  with  the  friar  Torquemada 
and  the  Inca  Grarcillasso  to  advocate  the  probability  of 
Satan  having  taught  among  the  civilized  nations  of  our 
continent  many  things  which  he  had  stolen  from  the 
Christian  religion.^  But  common  sense  sustains  Dr. 
de  Mier  when  he  says,  "  It  is  quite  strange,  indeed,  that 
the  devil  should  have  become  a  manufacturer  of  crosses 
and  a  teacher  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  enemy  of  the 
Gospel  is  not  so  stupid  as  to  prepare  the  human  minds 
to  receive  it,  by  making  them  believe  its  highest  myste- 
ries. Such  ridiculous  explanations  only  finish  proving 
that  the  facts  are  undeniable."  ^ 

Nor  does  the  explanation  of  Prescott  *  give  any  bet- 
ter satisfaction  than  the  devil-theory.  "It  is  more 
reasonable,"  he  says,  "  to  refer  such  casual  points  of 
resemblance  to  the  general  constitution  of  man,  and 
the  necessities  of  his  moral  nature.  The  points  of 
resemblance  are  too  numerous,  and,  in  many  cases, 
the  resemblance  is  too  great,  to  be  the  work  of  empty 
chance.  The  Christian  mysteries  admitted  by  the  an- 
cient Peruvians  and  Mexicans  could  hardly  find  their 
origin  in  man's  constitution ;  nor  are  religious  prac- 
tices, like  baptism,  fasting,  celibacy,  and  a  cloistered 


>  Laat  ch.  p.  531. 

"  Hornius,  lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  33 ; 
Garcilafiso  de  la  Vega,  Comenta- 
rioB,  lib.  ii.  cap.  vi.  p.  41. 


'  Ap.  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  vi. 

*  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 


I  <y. 


El 


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I-    : 


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r:^ 


524        HIHTORY    OF    AMKRICA    BEFORK    COLUMBUH. 

life,  to  be  considered  as  necessities  of  man's  moral,  yet 
corrupt,  nature. 

More  reasonable  and  better  historical  causes  should 
be  found  to  account  for  the  presence  of  Christian  faith 
and  Christian  rites  in  ancient  America.  It  is  hardly 
possible  to  admit,  even  as  a  reasonable  supposition,  the 
opinion  of  a  few  Spanish  historians, — namely,  that  the 
ventiges  of  Christianity  still  existing  on  our  continent 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  may  have 
had  their  origin  in  the  preaching  of  the  Apostle  St. 
Thomas,  which,  after  all,  is  not  absolutely  proved ; 
while,  on  the  contrary,  there  are  no  arguments  wanting 
to  make  us  believe  that  this  origin  is  not  anterior  to  the 
sixth  or  the  seventh  century  of  our  era.' 

GaffareP  makes  the  self-evident  remark  that  the 
source  of  ancient  American  Christianity  should  not  be 
looked  for,  but  in  the  fact  of  some  immigration  into  our 
continent  from  some  Christian  country,  or,  at  least,  of 
the  arrival  of  a  few  men  that  may  have  taught  Chris- 
tianity here.  He  adds,  with  less  probability,  that,  the 
number  of  those  immigrants  being  likely  too  small  to 
impose  their  religion  upon  the  natives,  they  have  com- 
promised with  them  to  accept  their  barbarous  idolatry, 
if  amalgamated  with  their  own  religion. 

Our  next  duty,  therefore,  will  be  to  inquire  from 
what  part  of  the  world,  from  the  East  or  from  the  West, 
such  Christian  immigration  or  immigrations  may  have 
landed  upon  the  shores  of  our  hemisphere. 

Not  a  few  authors  strenuously  contend  that  the  semi- 
civilization  of  Mexico,  Central  America,  and  Peru,  as 
found  by  the  Spanish  discoverers,  had  its  origin  in  east- 
ern Asia.  "  It  appears  unquestionable  to  me,"  says 
von  Humboldt,  "  that  the  monuments,  methods  of  com- 


'  Snpra,  pp.  228-230. 


Hint,  de  la  D6couv.,  t.  i.  p.  446. 


!  |1' 


WAS    AMERICA   (;HRIHTIANIZKI)    FRCkM    ASIA?       '^'25 

puting  time,  systems  of  cosmogony,  and  many  myths, 
which  I  have  discussed  in  my  *  Monuments  of  the  In- 
digenous American  Nations,'  offer  striking  analogies 
with  the  ideas  of  eastern  Asia,  analogies  that  indicate 
an  ancient  communication." ' 

Maltebnin  notices  the  great  similarities  between  the 
religions  and  the  astronomical  systems  of  Mexico  and 
Peru  and  those  of  Asia.  In  the  calendar  of  the  Aztecs, 
as  well  as  in  that  of  the  Mongolian  Kalmucks  and  of  the 
Tartars,  the  months  bear  the  names  of  animals,  and  the 
names  of  several  days  of  the  month  are  the  same.  Th'' 
four  great  festivals  of  Peru  coincide  with  those  of  China. 
The  hieroglyphics  and  the  record  strings  used  by  the 
ancient  Chinese  singularly  remind  us  of  the  Mexican 
figurative  writing  and  of  the  quipus  of  the  Peruvians.* 
Dr.  de  Mier  tries  to  prove  that  the  Mexican  calendar, 
both  civil  and  religious,  is  almost  identical  with  the 
one  of  the  Chinese  Tartars,^  and  it  is  well  known  that 
the  languages  of  both  the  Pacific  coasts  are  either 
agglutinative  or  monosyllabic* 

"  After  carefully  considering  all  the  particulars,  we 
cannot  doubt,"  says  Hornius,  "  that  the  Mexicans,  the 
Peruvians,  and  the  Chilians  are  the  descendants  of  the 
Mongols,  the  Chinese,  and  the  East  Indians.""  Civ- 
ilization, as  it  passed  into  Europe  by  Egypt  and  Asia 
Minor,  went  over  to  America  by  the  way  of  China, 


'  Extunen,  t.  ii.  p.  68,  and  Kos- 
mos,  S.  461. 

»  Maltebrun,  t.  v.  p.  212;  Ksist- 
ner,  pp.  27,  40. 

"  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  11. 

*  The  language  of  the  Otomis  in 
Mexico  is  decidedly  monosyllabic, 
and  we  read  in  "  Geografia  del 
Peru,"  by  Paz  Soldan :  "The  in- 
liabitante  of  the  village  of  Eten  in 
the  province  of  Lambayeque  and 


department  of  Libertad,  seem  to  be- 
long to  a  different  race  from  thoHe 
of  the  surrounding  countries.  They 
live  and  intermarry  only  amongst 
themselves,  and  speak  a  language 
which  is  perfectly  understood  by 
the  Chinese,  who  have  been 
brought  to  Peru  during  these  last 
few  years."  (De  Quatrefages,  p. 
204.) 
*  Lib.  iv.  cap.  i.  p.  224. 


1 


H.    . 


IP 


t,  '  ■  ■ 


i|i 


A 


\ 


52H        HISTORY    OF    AMKRK'A    HKFOKE   rOLUMBUH. 

(Japan,  and  the  inlands.'  It  is  a  grand,  remarkable  fact, 
indeed,  more  convincing  than  all  other  considerations, 
that  an  advanced  civilization,  manifested  by  its  monu- 
ments, its  public  highways,  civil  institutions,  and  the 
character  of  its  solemn  worshij),  was  found  by  the  Span- 
ish discoverers  to  exist  only  in  the  part  of  our  continent 
opposite  to  Asia,  while  the  eastern  slope  was  inhabited 
by  nomadic  hunting  tribes,  fallen  to  the  lowest  level  of 
barbarism.  While  powerful  and  industrious  peoples, 
with  regular  governments,  laws,  and  cities,  flourished 
upon  the  sandy  coasts  of  the  Pacific  and  on  the  lofty 
table-lands  of  the  Andes,  at  heights  where  cold  and 
hunger  were  formidable  enemies,  the  Portuguese  found 
but  a  scattering  population,  steeped  in  the  saddest 
abasement,  in  the  fertile  districts  of  Brazil  where  can- 
nibalism has  continued  to  rage  till  our  own  day.^ 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  both  the  material 
progress  and  the  moral  infamy  of  the  civilized  Ameri- 
can kingdoms  of  the  sixteenth  century  were  a  faithful 
image  of  what  existed  in  the  eastern  portions  of  the 
Old  World,  and  were  introduced  from  there  by  post- 
Christian,  relatively  modern  immigrations. 

Although  justly  refusing  to  admit  an  Asiatic  origin 
of  the  American  aborigines  generally,  Cronau  ^  aids  in 
proving  that  between  both  the  Pacific  coasts  there  has 
long  been  a  frequent  intercourse.  The  famous  traveller 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Franciscan  friar,  William 
Ruysbroek,  who  was,  in  the  year  1254,  for  several 
months  in  Caracaroum,  the  capital  of  the  Tartar- 
Mongol  empire,  learned  from  a  French  goldsmith  re- 
siding there  that  there  was  a  nation  called  "  Tante"  or 
"  Mante"  inhabiting  certain  islands  towards  the  East, 


'  M^moires  des  Antiq. ,  1840-44, 
p.  138. 
*  Von  Humboldt,  Exanien,  t.  ii. 


p.  72 ;  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  Amer- 
ica, p.  46(i. 
'  S.  108. 


WAH    AMERICA    (^HRIHTIANIZED    FROM    AHIA  ?      r>27 


where  the  sea  was  frozen  in  winter,  who  v/ere  unable 
to  prevent  the  Tartars  from  invading  them  on  the 
ice,  and  had  despatched  ambassadors  to  the  Grand- 
Khan  to  offer  him  a  yearly  tribute  of  two  thousand 
"jascots,"  in  order  to  obtain  his  good  will  and  pro- 
tection.' It  is  easily  understood  that  these  islands 
could  not  be  but  those  of  Behring  Sea  and  tlie  north- 
western Anjerican  shores.  Nor  is  there  any  diflficulty, 
therefore,  in  admitting  that  the  Nahua  nations  were 
successive  swarms  of  the  Grand-Khan's  empire,  suffi- 
ciently civilized  to  introduce  into  Mexico  the  material 
progress  so  much  admired  by  the  Spaniards.  Cara- 
caroum  was,  indeed,  according  to  Ruysbroek's  report, 
a  large  city  well  fitted  for  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of 
a  j)owerful  monarch  with  a  numerous  court. 

We  have  observed  already  '^  the  striking  and  charac- 
teristic analogies — physical,  social,  religious,  and  moral 
— which  existetl  between  the  Scythian-Tartar-Mongolic 
races  and  the  greatest  number  of  American  aboriginal 
tribes.  These  analogies  were  particularly  noticeable 
among  the  numerous  nations  that  intermixed  and  suc- 
ceeded one  another  in  the  Mexican  empire. 
1  Therefore,  although  no  strictly  historical  proof  may 
warrant  the  assertion,  it  is  allowed  to  assume  that  the 
northeastern  Asiatic  peoples  did  not  stop  their  immi- 
grations into  our  continent  at  the  close  of  the  more 
ancient  epoch  of  American  national  events,  but  rather, 
in  post-Christian  times  also,  continued  to  consider  a» 
one  of  their  provinces  the  sunny  land  of  New  Spain, 
as  they  did  hold  Alaska  until  quite  recently. 

After  reading  several  long,  intricate,  and  puzzling 
histories  of  the  Nahua  nations,  which  all  pretended  to 
have  come  from  the  North,  we  cannot  help  thinking 


!  i ' 


"  Rohrbacher,    t.   xviii.   p.    560, 
neq. ;  Cooley,  Historic,  p.  270. 


» Supra,  pp.  313-317. 


528       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    llEFORK   C^OLUMBUH. 


'li'i  i  ' 


that  northern  Asia  was  their  native  land,  from  which 
they  had  crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean  on  either  the 
Behring  or  the  Aleutian  bridge,  to  gradually  tlescend 
towards  more  inviting  southern  climes. 

Some  authors  have  judiciously  considered  the  mi- 
gration of  the  Toltecs  and  of  their  cognate  Mexican 
tribes  as  connected  with  the  national  commotions  that 
for  hundreds  of  years  shook  the  steppes  of  central 
Asia.  They  think  that  while  savage  hordes  like  the 
Avares  and  the  Hunni  were  driven  westward  on  their 
destructive  march  through  Europe,  other  tribes  of 
higher  culture,  to  escape  the  sword  of  victorious  foes, 
set  out  from  the  banks  of  the  Lena  River  or  of  the 
Baikal  Lake  in  an  easterly  direction,  crossed  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  eventually  became,  through  their  civiliza- 
tion, a  blessing  to  our  western  shores.* 

The  relation  of  minor  particulars  and  considerations 
as  to  mutual  influence  of  both  the  rising  and  of  the 
declining  nations  in  Mexico  would  naturally  lead  us 
to  the  statt  ^ents  already  set  forth  in  regard  to  the 
moral  and  i  "igious  condition  of  New  Spain  at  the 
time  of  the  laiest  discovery  ;  but  we  feel  confident  that 
our  readers  are  sufficiently  informed  in  this  respect  to 
allow  us  to  proceed  with  our  inquiry  into  the  advo- 
cated Asiatic  origin  of  the  second  period  of  civilization 
on  our  continent. 

Not  only  the  northern,  but  also  the  eastern-central 
region  of  Asia  is  credited  with  having  contributed  its 
share  to  the  ancestry  of  our  cultured  aborigines.  Cer- 
tain allusions  to  a  Chinese  colony,  made  by  Marco  Polo 
and  Gonzalo  Mendoza,  led  Horn,  Forster,  and  other 
writers  to  suppose  that  the  Chinese,  driven  from  their 
country  by  the  Tartars  about  the  year  1 270,  embarked, 


mv-] 


'  Rottwk,  M.  vii.  S.  ti;5. 


^^^1 


Was    AMKIUCA    cmUSTrANIZFJ)    FROM    ASIA?      520 

under  their  leader  Fuct'ur,  to  the  number  of  one  hun- 
dred thousand,  in  a  fleet  of  one  thousand  vessels,  and 
having  arrived  at  the  coast  of  America,  there  founded 
the  Mexican  empire.'  As  Warden  justly  remarks, 
however,  it  is  not  probable  that  an  event  of  such  im- 
portance would  be  passed  over  in  silence  by  the  Chinese 
historians,  who  rendered  a  circumstiintial  account  of 
the  destruction  of  their  t^.eet  by  the  Tartars  about  the 
year  1278  of  our  era,  as  well  as  of  the  subjuj^ation  of 
their  country  by  those  people." 

The  same  serious  objection  may  be  made  to  the 
opinion  of  a  (Chinese  immigration  having  originated 
the  civilized  nation  of  Pen:  about  the  same  epoch."' 

The  well-known  tradition,  according  to  which  the 
first  Inca,  Manco,  and  his  wife,  Coya  Mama,  were  chil- 
dren of  the  sun,  and  by  that  god  sent  to  Peru,  gives  us 
sufficiently  to  understand  that  they  were  foreigners  to 
that  country.  Allowing  a  reign  of  twenty  years  to 
each  of  the  twelve  successive  Incas,  we  might  conclude 
that  the  first  one  made  his  appearance  about  the  year 
1287.  There  being  no  sign  nor  reason  whatever  to 
suppose  that  he  had  come  from  other  American  parts, 
we  are  obligeil  to  admit  that  his  native  country  was 
either  Asia  or  Polynesia. 

Nor  is  it  a  wonder  that  eastern  Asia  should  have 
been  the  original  home  of  western  America's  culture, 
since,  according  to  all  probabilities,  there  existed,  at  the 
time  of  the  latest  discovery  and  long  after,  a  regular 
intercourse  between  the  opposite  shores  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  Gomara,  who  witnessed  the  conquest  of  Mexico 
and  was  a  contemporary  of  the  expeditions  which  fol- 
lowed, tells  us  that  companions  of  Francesco  Vasquez 

'  Horniiis,   lib.    iv.  cap.   xiii.    p.         *  Rancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  37,  ref.  to 
2tt3.  Wanlcii,  Kechorcht'H,  p.  HT). 

"  Kotteck,  lUi.  vii.  8.  (17. 
I— 84 


530       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


i 


'I,:    'l 


1^1 


i 


T I 


"iS 


M: 


,i-.. 


I 


I 


de  Coronado,  in  sailing  up  the  Western  Sea  as  far  as 
the  fortieth  degree  of  northern  latitude,  happened  upon 
ships  laden  with  merchandise,  which,  as  they  were  led 
to  understand  by  the  sailors,  had  been  at  sea  for  more 
than  a  month.  The  Spaniards  concluded  that  they 
had  come  from  Cathay  or  China.^ 

The  people  of  Japan  had,  it  seems,  knowledge  of  the 
American  continent,  for  Montanus  tells  us  that  three 
ship  captains,  named  Henrik  Corneliszoon,  Schaep,  and 
Wilhelm  Byleveld,  taken  prisoners  by  the  Japanese 
and  carried  to  Jeddo,  were  shown  a  sea-chart,  on  which 
America  was  drawn  as  a  mountainous  country  adjoin- 
ing Tartary.^ 

The  following  narrative  was  made  in  the  year  1725, 
three  or  four  years  before  the  discovery  of  Behring 
Strait ;  and  the  exact  details  in  regard  to  the  general 
direction  of  the  American  northwestern  coast  and  of 
its  bend  at  the  peninsula  of  Alaska — which  for  brevity's 
sake  we  omit — are  a  sure  proof  of  its  credibility.  We 
copy  it  from  de  Quatrefages :  ^  "  The  Indian  traveller, 
Moncacht-Ap^,  was  certainly  a  remarkable  man.  Im- 
pelled by  the  desire  which  drove  Cosma  from  Koros  to 
Thibet, — the  wish  to  discover  the  original  home  of  his 
tribe, — he  went  at  first  in  a  northeasterly  direction  as 
far  as  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  then  re- 
turned to  Louisiana,  and  started  again  for  the  North- 
west. Having  ascended  the  Missouri  to  its  sources,  he 
crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  reached  the  Pacific 
Ocean  by  descending  a  river  which  he  called  '  the 
Beautiful,'  and  which  can  be  none  other  than  the  Co- 
lumbia River.  There  he  heard  of  white,  bearded  men, 
provided  with  arms  hurling  thunder,  who  came  every 


'  De  Quatrefages,  p.  205. 
'  Nieuwe  Weereld,  bl.  39,  quoted 
by  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  54. 


'P.  205. 


~-\ 


WAS   AMERICA   CHRISTIANIZED   FROM    ASIA?      531 

year  in  a  great  boat  to  look  for  wood  wiiich  they  used 
for  dyeing,  and  carried  off  the  natives  to  reduce  them 
to  a  state  of  slavery.  Moncacht-Apo,  who  was  ac- 
quainted with  the  nature  of  fire-arms,  advised  his 
friends  to  prepare  an  ambuscade.  The  plans  which  he 
suggested  were  a  complete  success :  several  of  the  ag- 
gressors were  slain.  The  Americans  saw  that  their  as- 
sailants were  no  Europeans,  for  their  clothes  were  quite 
different  and  their  arms  were  clumsy,  while  their 
powder  was  coarser  and  did  not  carry  so  far.  Every- 
thing, on  the  contrary,  tended  to  show  that  they  were 
Japanese,  accustomed  to  make  descents  upon  this  coast 
of  America,  like  those  of  lawless  modern  cr  in 
search  of  sandal-wood  of  Melanesia,  who  seize  tlie  col- 
ored natives  whenever  they  have  an  opportunity,  and 
sell  them  off  to  cotton-planters  of  Australia." 

De  Quatrefages  concludes  the  narrative  with  the  in- 
ference that,  although  it  may  wound  our  pride,  we  must 
acknowledge  that  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  knew  and 
by  different  ways  explored  America  long  before  the 
Europeans  discovered  it.^  The  truth  of  this  sweeping 
assertion  is  very  doubtful  when  we  recall  to  mind  what 
has  been  said  of  the  first  American  settlements  ;  but  we 
agree  with  the  learned  generally  that  the  over-estimated, 
the  material  culture  of  Mexico  and  Peru  and  of  the  in- 
termediate western  countries  of  our  continent,  as  exist- 
ing at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  ought  to  be 
credited  to  the  glories  of  eastern  Asia :  to  the  Tartar- 
Mongols,  to  the  Chinese,  perhaps ;  maybe  to  the  Jap- 
anese, the  East  Indians,  or  to  some  Polynesian  tribes 
now  sunk  below  the  level  of  their  enterprising  ances- 
tors. Prescott  makes  the  following  remark  :  "  A  close 
resemblance  may  be  found  between  the  Peruvian  insti- 

'  p.  206. 


532       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS, 


:K 


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I'l^'  i 


s  1 1 ; 


'am 


1        ' 


tutions  and  some  of  the  despotic  governments  of  eastern 
Asia,  where  despotism  appears  in  its  more  mitigated 
form  and  the  whole  people  seem  to  be  gathered  to- 
gether like  members  of  one  vast  family.  Such  were 
the  Chinese,  for  example,  whom  the  Peruvians  resem- 
bled in  their  implicit  obedience  to  authority,  their  mild 
yet  somewhat  stubborn  temper,  their  solicitude  for 
forms,  their  reverence  for  ancient  usage,  their  skill  in 
the  minuter  manufactures,  their  imitative  rather  than 
inventive  cast  of  mind,  and  their  invincible  patience  in 
the  execution  of  diificult  undertakings. 

**  A  still  closer  analogy  may  be  found  with  the  na- 
tives of  Hindostan  in  their  division  into  castes,  their 
worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  elements  of 
nature,  and  their  acquaintance  with  the  scientific  prin- 
ciples of  husbandry.  To  the  ancient  Egyptians,  also, 
they  bore  considerable  resemblance  in  the  same  par- 
ticulars, as  well  as  in  those  ideas  of  a  future  existence 
which  led  them  to  attach  so  much  importance  to  the 
permanent  preservation  of  the  body."  ^ 

There  still  remains,  however,  the  interesting  and 
highly  important  question  regarding  the  origin  of  the 
more  refined  and  more  humane  element,  which  we  have 
observed  to  exist,  as  the  gold  under  its  dross,  in  Mexi- 
can society  ;  the  great  question  regarding  the  origin  of 
Christian  principles  and  practices,  which  softened  down 
the  barbarous  features  of  Mexican  institutions  and  con- 
tributed, in  no  mean  degree,  to  keep  alive  a  nation 
whose  gigantic  crimes  and  vices  seemed  to  doom  it  to 
an  early  self-destruction. 

Was  it  from  Asia,  also,  from  Tartary,  India,  or  China 
that  Christianity  was  introduced  into  Anahuac  and 
Peru  ?     Dr.  de  Mier  stoutly  replies  that  he  will  make 


'  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol.  i.  pp.  164,  166. 


WAS    AiMERICA    CHRISTIANIZED    FROM    ASIA?      533 

US  see  America's  Christian  institutions  to  have  their 
origin  in  China ! '  Kastner  seems  to  be  of  the  same 
opinion.^  A  safe  plan  for  arriving  at  a  correct  answer 
is  to  inquire  what  amount  of  Christianity  eastern  Asia 
possessed  at  the  time,  and  was,  consequently,  able  to 
impart  to  the  settlements  it  established  in  the  New 
World.  The  Scythians,  or  rather  their  cognates,  the 
Tartar-Mongolian  nations,  were  most  probably,  as  we 
have  seen  before,"  the  ancestors  of  the  most  ancient 
American  tribes,  and  perhaps  of  later  colonies  on  our 
western  coast. 

The  legend  of  the  Roman  Breviary  *  tells  us  that  St. 
Philip,  after  having  received  the  Holy  Ghost,  had  his 
lot  cast  to  preach  the  gospel  among  the  Scythians,  and 
converted  nearly  the  whole  of  that  nation.  Origenes, 
Tertullian,  St.  John  Chrysostom,  and  Theodoretus  tes- 
tify that  the  light  of  Christian  doctrine  shone  upon 
Scythia  and  Sarmatia  at  the  time  of  the  apostles.*^  The 
Turks  received  several  Christian  rites  from  the  Tartars, 
who  were  not,  in  ancient  times,  unacquainted  with  the 
emblem  of  the  cross,  which  they  had  drawn  with  ink 
on  their  foreheads,  when,  as  ambassadors  of  their  coun- 
try, they  went  to  visit  Maurice,  the  emperor  of  Con- 
stantinople, during  the  last  quarter  of  the  sixth  century." 

These  reports,  meagre  as  they  are,  contain  substan- 
tially the  sum  of  information  which  we  have  of  ancient 
Christianity  among  the  Tartar  nations.  Ruysbroek, 
who  visited  them  in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, does  not  by  any  means  give  us  a  flattering  descrip- 
tion of  Christianity  in  the  capital  of  the  "Grand-Khan," 
Caracaroum,  where  he  found  a  confusion  of  all  Asiatic 


''  1 


1  ■■  11 


■!Li 


'  Sahagun,  t.  i.,  Dissertation  of 
Dr.  de  Mier,  p.  ii. 
»  P.  27. 
»  Supra,  pp.  312-320. 


♦  Ad  l"™  Mail,  lect.  iv. 

*  Delia  Chiesa  Russa,  p.  1. 

•  Hornius,  lib.    iii.  cap.   xix.  p. 
217  ;  Rohrbacher,  t.  ix.  p.  269. 


'  1*  ■    il 


II 


u 


W: 


f..  ■' 


(i 


n 


11 


M    I 


534       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

religions  and  Asiatic  infidelity.  The  Chinese  Tuinians, 
as  Ruysbroek  calls  the  Asiatic  idolaters,  the  Nestorians, 
the  Saracens,  and  probably  the  Eutychians,  held  there 
at  the  time  a  Congress  of  Religions, — perhaps  the  first, 
— where  the  Catholic  friar  was  the-  principal  speaker, 
while  the  Tuinians  indulged  in  copious  drinking ;  and 
from  which  no  apparent  good  resulted.^ 

Ruysbroek  said  Holy  Mass  in  Caracaroum,  heard 
confessions,  and  baptized  more  than  sixty  persons  on 
Easter  Sunday  of  the  year  1253 ;  but  these  ministra- 
tions simply  testify  to  a  foreign  population  of  scattered 
individuals  from  distant  Christian  countries,  such  as 
Hungary,  Alania,  southern  Russia,  Georgia,  and  Ar- 
menia, as  he  plainly  reports.  Tartar  Mongolia  itself 
was  infidel  at  the  time,  and,  as  the  Grand-Khan  proudly 
stated,  under  the  religious  direction  of  the  sorcerers, 
whose  dictates  were  the  people's  law.'^ 

Later  historical  information  exhibits  Tartary  and 
Mongolia  as  the  undisputed  dominion  of  infidelity  and 
devilism,  down  to  modern  times,  in  which  a  few  Chris- 
tian missionaries  risk  their  lives  for  the  enlightenment 
of  those  countries. 

After  such  reports  of  Christian  history  in  Tartar 
Mongolia,  we  leave  it  to  our  readers  to  judge  of  the 
probabilities  of  Christianity  having  been  planted  on 
American  soil  by  immigrations  from  that  region.  We 
are  of  the  opinion  that  these  probabilities  are  slim 
indeed ;  all  the  more,  when  we  consider  that  various 
Christian  rites  were  found  to  exist  on  this  continent, 
which  never  had  anything  in  common  with  the  sects 
of  Nestorius  or  Eutyches. 

Did  not  rather  the  Chinese  introduce  Christianity 
into  America  ?     We  have  remarked  that  the  Chinese 

'  Rohrbacher,  t.  xxdii.  pp.  568, 569.      Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  xxv. 
'Ibid.,  t.  xix.  pp.  168,  169.     See     p.  1,  nfq. 


■ 


WAS    AMERICA   CHRI8TIANIZED    FllOM    ASIA?      535 


origin  of  the  civilized  American  nations  is  of  minor 
probability ;  ^  neither  could  we  honestly  defend  the 
opinion  of  Chinese  origin  in  regard  to  the  Christian 
faith  and  liturgy  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  even  though  it 
would  be  as  likely  as  it  is  not  that  China  procured 
their  later  settlers  to  the  western  shores  of  America. 
A  synopsis  of  Chinese  earlier  Christianity  bears  out 
this  opinion. 

It  is  thought  that  the  apostle  St.  Thomas  evangelized 
some  portion  of  China.^  In  the  year  1570,  according  to 
da  Casterano,  but  rather  in  1625,  a  monument  as  im- 
portant as  curious  was  discovered  at  Si-ngan-fu,  in  the 
province  of  Scen-si,  by  Chinese  laborers  digging  for  the 
foundation  of  a  house,  and  was  placed  in  a  neighboring 
temple.  It  was  a  stone  five  feet  wide  and  ten  feet  high, 
adorned  with  a  cross  and  covered  with  ancient  Chinese 
and  stranghelos  characters,  which,  being  deciphered, 
gave  the  information  that  it  was  erected  in  the  year 
782,  in  memory  of  the  introduction  into  the  Celestial 
Empire  of  the  Christian  religion  by  the  priest  Olopen, 
six  hundred  and  thirty-five  years  after  Christ.  It  re- 
lates that  several  Chinese  emperors  were  converted  to 
the  faith  and  ordered  churches  to  be  built  all  over  the 
ten  provinces  of  their  vast  dominion.^  The  monument 
further  states  that  Olopen  introduced  into  China  several 
of  his  colleagues  from  the  West,  and  was  raised  to  the 
pontifical  dignity.  In  the  year  698  the  Chinese  Bud- 
dhists, and  in  712  the  literati,  persecuted  and  slandered 
Christianity,  which,  after  many  sufferings,  was  favored 
again  by  a  wise  emperor  and  flourished  more  than 
ever.     The  principal  mysteries  and  tenets  of  our  holy 


'  Pietro  Ainat,  p.  322 ;  Malte- 
brun,  t.  i.  p.  403  ;  Rohrbacher,  t. 
Pietro  Amat,  p.  321  ;  Woutere,  t.  i.  x.  pp.  178,  179;  Wouters,  t.  i.  p. 
p.  362.  3H2. 


>  Supra,  p.  332. 

*  Carlo  Horatii  da  Caaterano,  ap. 


■ISM 


-i; 


*ii 


ta 


r    ;r 


:A      r, 


lU 


^1 


536       HISTORY    OF    AMP:RICA    before    (;OLUiMBUH. 

religion  were  also  epitomized  on  the  marble,  on  whose 
sides  were  preserved,  in  stranghelos,  or  Chaldaic  char- 
acters, the  names  of  the  first  priests,  of  the  bishop,  and 
his  rural  deans.^  Were  these  Catholics,  or  were  they 
Nestorians  ?  The  monument  does  not  state  ;  but  gen- 
eral history  sufficiently  indicates  them  to  have  been 
sectarians.  Through  many  vicissitudes  of  imperial  dy- 
nasties they  continued  their  existence  in  China,  where, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  they  held  fifteen  cities,  with 
a  bishop  residing  in  Begin,  probably  Si-ngan-fu  in 
eastern  China,  where  not  a  few  vestiges  of  Christian 
institutions  have  since  been  discovered.^ 

We  have  just  noticed  that  when  the  Belgian  friar, 
William  Ruysbroek,  had  been  sent  to  the  Asiatic 
potentates  by  the  French  king,  St.  Louis,  he  found  a 
few  Christian  families  sojourning  in  the  Tartar-Mongol 
capital.  His  science  and  demeanor,  and  more  likely 
the  welcome  embassy  confided  to  him,  had,  it  would 
seem,  so  well  pleased  both  the  Grand-Khans  of  Mon- 
golia and  of  China  that  they,  in  turn,  despatched 
ambassadors  to  the  Christians,  and  in  particular  to  the 
Pope  of  Rome,  requesting  him  to  send  them  teachers 
of  the  true  religion.  Marco  Polo,  who,  shortly  after 
Ruysbroek,  stayed  in  China  for  several  years,  was,  on 
his  return  to  Venice  in  1295,  the  carrier  of  one  such 
request,  remembered  by  Christopher  Columbus  and  by 
his  learned  correspondent  Toscanelli."^ 

The  consequence  of  these  cordial  relations,  fostered 
by  the  Popes,  was  the  sending  of  several  missionaries 
into  the  Chinese  empire,  the  greater  number  of  whom 
were  friars  of  the  Order  of  St.  Francis.  The  most 
remarkable  among  his  companions  was  John  da  Monte 


'  Aa.  locis  ult.  cit.  '  Van  Speybrouck,  bl.  47  ;    von 

'  Wouters,  t.  ii.  p.  95 :  Cooley,      Humboldt,  Examen,  t.  i.  pp.  213 
Histoire,  p.  268.  214. 


WAS    AMERICA    CHRISTIANIZED    FROM    A8IA  ?      /)37 


Corvino,  who,  in  the  year  ])i()5,  liad  already  built  two 
churches  in  Peking,  the  capital  of  China.^  In  1307 
Pope  Clement  V.  appointed  him  a  metropolitan  of  all 
China,  and  ordered  seven  more  Minorites  to  be  conse- 
crated bishops  and  made  his  sufiragans.'^  The  next 
year  he  was  followed  in  Peking  by  several  other  Fran- 
ciscan friars,  among  whom  was  Andrew  da  Perugia, 
afterwards  bishop  of  Zaitun,  or  Canton.  The  blessed 
Oderic,  called  da  Pordenone  or  del  Friuli,  remained  in 
Asia  from  1316  till  1330,  and  made  many  conver- 
sions in  the  Chinese  capital,  where  he  resided  three 
years,  and  of  which  he  has  left  us  a  most  interesting 
description.^ 

The  archbishop  of  Peking,  John  da  Monte  Corvino, 
lived,  together  with  .lis  Franciscan  co-laborers,  in  their 
regularly  established  monastery  until  his  death,  when 
he  was  succeeded,  in  the  year  1333,  by  Nicolas,  a  friar 
of  the  same  religious  order.  The  new  prelate  arrived 
as  carrier  of  friendly  letters  from  Pope  John  XXII. 
to  the  various  governors  and  emperor  of  the  Mongolic 
empire,  and  his  embassy  was  several  times  reciprocated 
by  the  Chinese  monarch,  whose  policy  was  most  favor- 
able to  the  extension  of  our  holy  religion.* 

Between  1338  and  1353  Giovanni  Marignoli  spent 
some  years  in  Peking  as  legate  of  Pope  Benedict  XI. 
to  the  Grand-Khan,  and  also  travelled  in  Ceylon  and 
Hindostan."^ 

The  happy  dispositions  of  the  Tartar-Mongolian 
princes  lasted  as  long  as  their  dynasty ;  but  the  re- 
bellion of  a  Chinese  general,  sustained  by  the  insur- 
rection of  eastern  Mongolia,  deprived  them,  about  the 


'  Maltebnm,  t.  i.  p.  381 ;  Peschel, 
Zeitalter,  S.  17. 

'  Rohrbacher,  t.  xix.  p.  414 ; 
Pietro  Amat,  p.  322. 

»  Peschel,  Zeitalter,  t?.  17  ;  Ode- 


rico  da  Pordenone,  ap.  Pietro  Amat, 
p.  26. 

*  Rohrbacher,  t.  xx.  p.  152,  acq. 

*  Fiske,  vol.  i.  p.  291. 


■;■;! 


i^'l 


^  1 

i.i. 


m 


iV.:\i 


}  ,1  ■  f 


5)^8       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORi:   COLUMBUS. 

middle  of  tlie  fourteenth  century,  of  tlieir  throne  and 
their  beneficent  authority.  The  Huccecding  dynasty  of 
Ming-ciao,  unfavorable  to  the  Christians,  forbade  the 
entrance  of  the  empire  not  only  to  the  Tartars,  but 
also  to  all  foreigners.  The  consequence  of  this  rigidly 
enforced  edict  was  that  the  Chinese  missions,  unable 
yet  to  supply  their  own  clergy,  were  soon  deprived 
of  teachers  and  pastors,  and  the  greater  number  of 
them  dwindled  away  into  their  previous  infidelity  and 
Buddhism.  In  the  year  1370  Pope  Urban  V.  still 
appointed  William  Du  Prat,  a  Parisian  doctor,  as  arch- 
bisiiop  of  Peking,  and  several  members  of  the  Order 
of  St.  Francis  as  missionaries  to  China ;  but  it  is 
doubtful  whether  they  ever  succeeded  in  penetrating 
into  the  Celestial  Empire,  nor  does  it  appear  that  this 
mission  had  any  success  at  all.^ 

After  this  digression  the  reader  will  be  able  to  judge 
for  himself  of  the  likelihood  or  possibility  that  the 
Peruvian  and  the  Mexican  tenets  and  practices  of 
Christianity  had  their  origin  in  China.  Catholicity 
never  was  in  that  country  but  in  the  condition  of 
a  few  poor  and  scattered  missionary  establishments, 
and  this  only  since  a  period  that  seems  rather  late  in 
regard  to  the  time  of  the  advent  of  our  civilized  abo- 
rigines. Nestorianism  lias  likely  had  an  earlier  and 
stronger  foothold ;  yet,  from  all  information  combined, 
we  must  conclude  that  this  sect  itself  never  had  any 
considerable  number  of  adherents  in  the  eastern  parts 
of  China,  in  those  provinces  from  which  the  Chinese 
immigrations,  if  any,  would  more  probably  have  taken 
their  departure.  Moreover,  such  features  as  priestly 
and  religious  celibacy,  and  other  Christian  vestiges 
which  we  have  noticed  before,  could  hardly  have  re- 

'  Da  Casterano,  ap.  Pietro  Amat,      p.  324  ;  Rolirbacher,  t.  xx.  p.  409  ; 

Peschel,  ZeiUilter,  H.  17. 


WAH    AMERICA    C'lIRISTIANMZED    FROM    ASIA?      539 


ceived  tlu^r  orij^iii  from  the  married  j)riesthood  of  a 
heresy  that  succeeded  in  infecting  Christians,  hut,  no 
hetter  than  any  other,  in  converting  or  civilizing  infidel 
nations. 

"  From  whence,  rather  than  from  Cathai,"  says  Hor- 
nius,^  "  could  Christian  rites  have  heen  introduced  into 
America?"  This  question  of  the  learned  Protestant 
is  not  an  assertion,  hut  the  expression  rather  of  his 
despair  of  ever  finding  a  plausible  source  of  the  unde- 
niable evangelization  of  the  western  portion  of  our 
continent,  of  such  despair  as  drove  him  to  look  for 
that  source  in  the  Jiell  of  the  damned.'^ 

We  shall  confine  our  researches  within  the  terres- 
trial sphere,  yet  we  should  not  surrender  to  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  question,  however  insurmountable  they 
may  appear  to  be.  Our  hope  of  success  in  solving  it 
satisfactorily  ought  to  be  sustained  by  a  reasonable 
expectation  of  discovering  some  clue  to  the  preachers 
of  ancient  American  Christianity  unong  the  very  peo- 
ple with  whom  its  vestiges  were  found  to  exist.  Are 
there  no  traces  pointing  to  its  origin,  in  those  countries, 
at  least, — namely.  Central  America,  Mexico,  and  Peru, 
— where  a  considerable  number  of  its  doctrines  and 
ceremonies  have  endured?  We  do  not  look  for  strictly 
historical  evidences  among  our  natives  to  locate  this 
origin,  but  we  may  expect  to  obtain  from  their  tra- 
ditions a  valuable  guidance  to  the  countries  where  we 
may  find  it. 


3^  -I 


I 


'  Lib.  iv.  cap.  xv.  p.  270. 


''  Lib.  i.  cap.  iv.  p.  '^'^  ;   lib.  iv. 
cap.  XV.  p.  280. 


■ 


',;M.     ^ 


i 


t 


1 1, 
il  I 


I     ll 


\ji.^a4 


CPIAPTER   XXII. 

(ilJETZALCOATL    AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY. 

The  legendary  stories  of  our  siboripjines  are  so  nu- 
merous and  lengthy,  so  intricate,  often  so  eontradietory 
to  one  another,  and  more  fretjuently  so  utterly  non- 
sensical and  ridiculous,  that  it  not  only  requires  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  patience  to  read  them,  especially 
in  the  bulky  works  of  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  Lord 
Kingsborough,  and  H.  H.  Bancroft,  but  also  that  the 
reader  can  but  with  difficulty  discover  in  that  labyrinth 
of  myths  a  few  lines  of  historical  truth.  Yet  among 
all  tiiese  traditions  there  is  one  than  which  none  other 
is  more  uniformly  or  more  clearly  told  by  all  the  civil- 
ized American  nations. 

It  is,  namely,  the  legend  of  an  extraordinary  man, 
perhaps  canonized  in  Europe  and  apotheosized  all  over 
Central  America,  of  a  hero-god  who  came  from  a  for- 
eign country  to  reform  the  religion  of  the  Mexican 
tribes  and  of  their  southern  neighbors,  and  who  is 
known  generally  under  the  Aztec  name  of  Quetzal- 
coatl. 

This  apostle  and  civilizer  should  not,  as  we  remarked 
before,^  be  confounded  with  the  ancient  Maya  legislator 
and  chronicler  Votan,  nor  with  St.  Thomas,  the  apostle 
of  Christ ;  but  it  is  the  universal  opinion  of  the  learned 
that  Quetzalcoatl  is  identically  the  same  personage  with 
the  contemporary  religious  and  civil  reformer  whom 
various  nations  have  deified  under  diflferent  names ;  ^ 

*  Supra,  pp.  93,  227,  seq.  guage,  p.  150 ;  who,  however,  con- 

'  Cf.  Hutson,  The  Story  of  Lan-     founds  Votan  with  Quetzalcoatl. 
640 


QUETZAFX'OATI.    AND    FIFM    WIIITK   COF.ONY.         541 


tlmt  he  in  the  Huiiie  witli  Huonuic  or  Veinac,  hh  the 
MexIcunH  also  culled  him  ;  witli  Topiltziu,  hh  lie  wuh 
more  aneiently  known  in  Tulla  by  the  TolteeH ;  with 
Wixipeeocha,  under  wlioHe  name  he  waH  venerated 
by  tlu!  ZapotecH ;  with  Zamna,  Coza.s  or  Ciikiihian,  the 
theocratic  ruler  of  Yucatan  ;  nay,  with  Bochica,  the 
civilizer  of  Cundiniimarca  or  New  Granada,  and  with 
V^iracocha  of  l\uu.' 

Quetzalcoatl  arrived  at  Tulla,  the  Toltec  capital, 
from  Panuco,  a  small  place  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
where  he  had  first  landed.^  Duran  ''  likewise  relates 
that  Toj)iltzin  was  a  foreigner,  but  could  not  learn  from 
what  parts  lie  had  c(mie. 

His  name,  given  him  by  the  natives,  signified  "  Beau- 


'\ 


•  It  is  evident  enough  that  Cu- 
kulcan  was  the  same  iis  the  Quet- 
zalcoatl of  the  "Codex  Chinial- 
popoca,"  and  the  Gucuniatz  of  the 
"Popol  Vuh."  (Bancroft,  vol.  v. 
p.  621 . )  "  The  most  ixjpular  of  the 
deified  heroes  of  the  Mayas  were 
Zauina  and  Cukulcan,  not  unlikely 
the  Hame  personage  under  two 
names ;  and  both  are  quite  likely 
identical  with  Quetzalcoatl.  The 
opinion  derives  its  strongest  aid 
from  the  alleged  disapjiearance  of 
Quetzalcoatl  in  Goazacoalco,  just  at 
the  epoch  when  Cukulcan  appeared 
in  Yucatan."  (J.  Winsor,  vol.  i. 
p.  434 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  465. ) 
Miiller  argues  with  Ixtlilxochitl 
that  Quetzalcoatl  and  Huenmc  were 
one  and  the  same  person,  although, 
in  some  places,  Huemac  is  repre- 
sented to  be  the  sworn  enemy  of 
^Quetzalcoatl.  (Ibid.,  p.  431.)  The 
people  also  of  Yucatan  reverenced 
this  god  Quetzalcoatl,  calling  him 
Cukulcan.  (Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p. 
260.)  Torquemada  identifies  Cu- 
kulcan with  Quetzalcoatl.     (Ban- 


croft, vol.  V.  p.  619.)  B<M!hica,  le 
l^gislateur  des  Indiens  de  ('undi- 
namarca,  Bogota,  ^tait  comme  touB 
les  sages  de  I'Am^rique,  un  homnie 
de  race  barbue,  adonnt'  il  d'aus- 
tfires  penitences.  His  du  Soleil  & 
I'instar  du  Manco-Capac  des  Poru- 
viens.  Bochica  (itait  repr^sente 
avec  trois  t^tes,  et  ce  triple  om- 
bl6me  myst^rieux  se  r<''8umait  en 
une  seule  et  m6me  divinity.  Bo- 
chica partagea  les  Muyzcas  du  pla- 
teau de  Bogota  en  quatre  tribus, 
r^gla  le  calendrier  et  disparut  d, 
Iraca,  la  plus  populeuse  des  villes 
de  Cundinamarca,  qui  servit  aprt^ 
lui  de  residence  aux  pontifes  de  la 
nation.  (Kastner,  p.  41  ;  cf.  Win- 
sor, vol.  i.  p.  434. ) 

''  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii.  The  peo- 
ple of  Yucatan  revered  Quetzal- 
coatl, under  the  name  of  Cukul- 
can, saying  that  he  came  to  them 
"  from  the  West,"  but  that  is  from 
New  Spain,  where  he  first  landed ; 
for  Yucutan  is  eastward  therefrom. 
(Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  260.) 

'  T,  ii.  p.  74. 


I 


^ 


ti'i 


I  r 


I  '■  1^  ■' 


•I 


■.I 


■■,;■'■!■        1 

"  i   '    i  : 


p: ' 


M  :  i; 


M  t  : 

I;!  ill 


:1I 


542       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

tifully  feathered  serpent."  Cukulcau,  his  Maya  or 
Yucatec  appelhition,  had  exactly  the  same  meaning. 
It  was  the  name  of  princes  and  Toltec  kings,  and  prob- 
ably designated  some  honorable  title,  which,  if  we 
should  make  a  few  learned  considerations,  might  be 
found  to  be  The  Great  or  the  Glorious  Man  of  the 
Country.^  The  signification  of  "  feathered  twin"  has 
been  invented  to  preposterously  identify  Quetzalcoatl 
with  Didymus  or  St.  Thomas  the  apostle.^ 

The  Indians  remembered  well  that  their  god  Quet- 
zalcoatl had  not  been  like  one  of  themselves.  They 
described  him  as  a  white  or  pale-faced  man,  of  portly 
person,  with  broad  forehead,  greg^T^eyes,  'tong'iblack 
hair,  and  a  heavy  roimHecT  "beard.'*  The  Zapotecan 
Wixipecocha  was  also  a  white-skinned  apostle,*  and 
the  Toltecan  Topiltzin  is  described-as-Iiaviftg  all  the 
same  features,  to  which  Duran  adds  that  his  beard  was 
-of  a  fair-CQlor  and  his  nose  rather  large.  _, 

He  was  very^feseTTed-tir*Iris"  manners,  plain  and 
meek  with  those  who  approached  him,  passing  most  of 
his  time  in  meditation  and  prayer  in  his  cell,  and 
showing  himself  but  seldom  to  the  people.^  What  time 
he  did  not  consume  in  prayer  he  employed  in  erecting 
oratories  and  altars  in  all  the  wards  of  the  cities  where 
he  resided,  hanging  pictures  on  the  walls  and  above 
the  altars,  which  he  reverenced  by  kneeling  before 
them.  He  generally  slept  on  the  hard  floor  of  the 
sanctuaries  that  he  was  building,  for  his  life  was  as 
penitential  as  it  was  pious. 

'  Dr.  de  Mi(3r,  ap.  8ahagun,  t.  i.         "  Coleccion    de    Docuiiientosi,    t. 
p.  xi,  remarks:  "  Todo  el  imiKjrio     Ixvi.  p.  44*.>,  B.  de  his  Caaaa ;  Ban- 


de  Mexico  se  llamaba  'Colhuacan,' 
Pais  de  las  ciilebras." 

'  Thomas,  who  is  called  Didy- 
mus, MSviun,  twin.  (St.  John  xi. 
10.) 


croft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  25(),  255,  274. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  209. 

*  Duran,  t.  ii.  p.  7'S. 


f\ 


[■• 


I 


QTTETZALCOATL   AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY.         543 


i 


Very  abstemious  at  all  times,  Topiltzin  often  observed 
long  and  rigorous  fasts,  practising  severe  penances  and 
even  bloody -^elf-chastisements,  as  is  likewise  stated  of 
the  homologous  Quetzalcoatl.^ 

Le  las  Casas  testifies '  that  Quetzalcoatl  lived  a  most 

legtand  chaste  life :  Sahagun,  that  he  never  married 
nor  ever  was  in  the  company  of  a  woman,  except  in  the 
act  of  auricular  confessior^''  While,  according  to  tra- 
ditional report,  he  was  born  of  a  virgin  mother,  Her- 
rera  states  that  he  remained  a  virgin  himself.*  The 
Yucatec  legends  also  notice  the  celibacy  of  Cukulcan 
and  his  general  purity  of  morals.**  Of  Huemac  it  is 
related  that  the  lords  of  the  country  one  day  suggested 
to  him  to  marry.  The  holy  man  answered  them  that, 
indeed,  he  had  resolved  to  take  a  wife,  and  was  to  do 
so  when  the  oak-tree  would  bear  figs  and  the  sun  would 
rise  in  the  West,  when  we  would  cross  the  ocean  on  foot 
and  the  nightingales  would  have  beards  like  men." 

Quetzalcoatl  is  described  as  having  worn  during  life, 
for  the  sake  of  modesty,  a  garment  that  reached  down 
to  his  feet,  like  the  Wixipecocha  of  the  Zapotecs  and 
the  Cukulcan  of  the  Yucatecs,  whose  robe,  it  is  said,  was 
not  only  long,  but  ample  also,  thus  closely  resembling 
the  garb  of  Christian  clergymen,  and  particularly  that 
of  religious  friars.^  For  shoes,  Cukulcan  wore  sandals, 
walking  along  bare-headed ;  **  nor  is  it  said  that  his 
mantle  was,  like  that  of  his  equivalent  Wixipecocha, 
-rovid.^d  with  a  monk's  cowl  for  head-gear."     From 


'  l)urai\,  t.  ii.  p.  73  ;  Bastian,  Bd. 
ii.  8.  486. 

*  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t. 
Ixvi.  p.  44{>. 

'  T.  i.  p.  xii. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  lii.  p.  250 ;  Her- 
rera,  ap.  Baatian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  618. 

»  Short,  p.  229. 


'  Duran,  t.  ii.  p.  77. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  pp.  205),  2((0 ; 
Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t.  Ixvi. 
cap.  cxxiii.  p.  453,  B.  de  laa  Caeas. 

*  Coleccion  de  DocunientoH,  t. 
Ixvi.  cap.  cxxiii.  p.  453. 

•  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  209. 


544       HISTOKY    OF   AMERICA    BEFOKE   COLUMBUS. 


lit , 


1,1  i   •  1 


I  , 


if,    V: 


hi! 
r 


•f 

1-^-4-- 


fiij., 

f: 


n%i 


the  Mexican  traditions  we  learn  that  Quetzalcoatl,  also, 
wore  a  cloak,  which  Bancroft  calls  a  blanket  over  all,  in 
one  place,  and  a  long  white  robe,  in  another ;  adding 
that,  according  to  Gomara,  it  was  decorated  with 
crosses.^  Herrera''  relates  that  these  crosses  were  of  a 
^rod  color,,, and  Jm  Cggas,  that  with  such  a  mantle  he 
was  first  seen  at  his  landing  in  Panuco."  He  carried  in 
his  hand  a  staff,  whose  form  is  doubtful,  but  it  is  told 
that  Wixipecocha's  had  the  shape  of  a  cross,  like  those 
of  ancient  times  and  of  the  Orthodox  bishops  yet,  while 
Quetzalcoatl's  rather  resembled  a  sickle,  or  our  Latin 
bishops'  crosier  with  its  long  adorned  crook.* 

Bancroft  *  tells  us  that  Quetzalcoatl  wore  a  mitre  on 
his  head;  but  Duran^  learned  from  an  Indian,  who 
explained  to  him  a  volume  of  historic  paintings,  that 
Topiltziu  did  not  assume  his  mitre  of  precious  feathers 
except  when  he  was  celebrating  religious  feasts,  as  it  is 
the  practice  of  our  officiating  Christian  abbots  and 
bishops. 

The  date  of  Quetzalcoatl's  arrival  in  Panuco  or  in 
any  other  place  of  New  Spain  would  be  a  grand  laud- 
mark,  a  shining  beacon-light  for  the  historical  in- 
quirer ;  but  questions  of  chronology  can  hardly  ever  be 
solved  with  the  help  of  aboriginal  traditions,  upon 
whose  data  nothing  but  more  or  less  probable  or  pos- 
sible conjectures  can  be  founded.  We  should  not 
wonder,  therefore,  if  the  learned  widely  differ  in  as- 
signing the  time  of  America's  deified  civilizer.  It  is 
generally  conceded,  however,  that  Quetzalcoatl  was  a 
hero  of  a  pre-Aztec  period."  Several  authors  place  his 
career  about  the  eleventh  or  the  twelfth  century,  and 


»  Vol.  iii.  pp.  260,  274. 

*  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  H.  488 ;  Kaat- 
ner,  p.  91. 

•Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  209;  vol. 
iii.  p.  274. 


♦  Vol.  iii.  p.  274. 
^  T.  ii.  p.  77. 

•  Dr.  de  Mier,  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p. 
xii. 


QUETZALCOATL    AND    HI8    WHITE   COLONY. 


r)45 


Mr.  Aubin,  of  Mexico,  names  the  year  1002  as  the  date 
of  his  appearance  in  Tulla,  and  1051  as  that  of  his  re- 
turn to  eastern  parts.  It  is  observed,  however,  that 
such  an  epoch  cannot  be  sustained  in  the  light  of  the 
historical  manuscripts-pf  Bcajidinavian  Iceland.^  Her- 
rera,  with  greater  probability,  places  Quetzalcoatl  withiii 
the  ninth  century.'"^ 

The  apostle's  antiquity  seems  to  be  greater  still,  and 
most  likely  to  ascend  to  the  beginning  of  the  Toltec 
domination,  if  we  are  allowed  to  draw  any  inference  at 
all  from  the  legends  of  the  Mexicans  and  neighboring 
tribes,  who  refer  to  the  Toltecs  most  of  what  we  have 
found  to  be  great  and  good  in  their  religious  and  social 
institutions,  as  will  appear  yet  farther  on.  According 
to  Torquemada,  Quetzalcoatl  came  at  the  time  that  the 
Toltecs  occupied  the  country,  and  the  native  historian 
Ixtlilxochitl  connects  him  even  with  the  pre-Toltec 
tribes  of  Olmeca  and  Xicalanca.''  If  these  latter  opinions 
should  prove  to  be  the  most  correct,  as  they  appear  to 
be  for  several  reasons,  it  would  follow  that  the  great 
white  civilizer,  the  "  fair  god"  of  Central  America,  un- 
doubtedly anterior  to  the  tenth,  may  have  landed  on  the 
Mexican  coast  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  of  our  era. 

The  duration  of  Quetzalcoatl's  labors  in  America  is 
more  uncertain  still.  After  his  departure  his  memory 
was  held  in  benediction  till,  in  later  times,  when  idolatry 
prevailed  again,  he  was  placed  among  the  gods,  and 
his  relics,  in  the  form  of  green  stones  that  had  belonged 
to  him,  were  preserved  mth  great  veneration  by  the 
Cholulans.* 


•  Cogolludo  places  itinthetwelfth, 
and  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  in  tlie 
eleventh  century ;  Shorti,  p.  230 ; 
M<^moireH  des  Anticiuaires,  1S4()- 
1844,  p.  5) ;  Nadaillac,  PrehlHtoric 
America,  Append.,  p.  537. 
I.— 36 


'  Short,  p.  230  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  ii. 
p.  i.m. 

•''  J.  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  431. 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  260 ;  Bhh- 
tian,  Bd.  ii.  H.  480. 


l-li 


/   / 


546       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


r 

'A  .     ^ 


«^'■ 

1 

i 

1 

k  'f      J 

, 

. 

,;• 

tf 

1 

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1  ^  H 

r-        '    ■  ■  ■  ■ 

1^     ; 


These  excessive  honors  were  bestowed  upon  hhn,  as 
honors  are  generally  bestowed  upon  captains  and  other 
superiors,  not  only  in  consideration  of  his  own  per- 
sonal merits,  but  also  of  the  great  services  rendered  by 
his  saintly  companions  and  co-religionists,  who,  with 
him  and  likely  long  after  him,  performed  the  great 
work  of  conversion  and  civilization,  which,  evidently, 
it  was  impossible  for  one  man  to  accomplish  among 
so  many  nations  of  Central  America's  extensive  ter- 
ritory. 

Dr.  de  Mier,  commenting  Sahagun,^  tells  us  that,  in- 
j     deed,  Quetzalcoatl  appeared  in  Panuco,  accompanied  by 
./      seven  or,  according  to  other   traditions,  by  fourteen 
/       companions,   dressed  like   himself.      We   know   from 
I        Duran  ^  that  Topiltzin,  also  after  his  arrival  in  Amer- 
ica, admitted  into  his  Order,  called  "  Quequetzalcohua " 
or  Priests  of  the  Order  of  Quetzalcoatl,  new  disciples, 
whom  he  instructed  to  pray  and  to  preach.^     The  Chi- 
apan  tradition,  therefore,  related  by  Las  Casas,*  should 
not  be  considered  as  being  in  contradiction  with  the 
former,  when  it  states  that  Cukulcan  came  over  to  the 
Yucatecs  in  company  of  nineteen  or  twenty  co-laborers, 
as  reported  also  by  Torquemada.^ 

Quetzalcoatl's  companions  observed  strict  celibacy," 
and  all  who  landed  with  him  wore  long  beards,^  as 
their  leader.  Their  dressing  apparel  consisted  of  san- 
dals, a  robe  that  fell  to  the  feet,  and  a  mantle  of  black 
color,  as  it  is  generally  related.  Their  hair  was  their 
head-dress.'*  Duran,  however,"  assures  us  that  the  dis- 
ciples of  Topiltzin  wore  colored  robes  and  a  piece  of 
cloth  on  their  heads. 


>  T.  i.  p.  xii. 
»  T.  ii.  p.  73. 
»  Cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  25«. 

*  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  371. 

*  Ap.  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  «19. 


•  Saliagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii. 

'  Bastian,   Bd.  ii.  S.  371 ;    Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  p.  4(jf) ;  vol.  v.  p.  H19. 
^  Ibid.  ;  Hahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii. 

•  T.  ii.  p.  7«. 


M 


(JUETZALCOATL    AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY. 


547 


A  curious  particular  of  the  ancient  traditions  is,  that 
as  Cukulcan  in  Yucatan  had  a  privileged  disciple,  named 
Cozas,  so  also  Quetzalcoatl  showed  special  affection  to 
his  companion,  Totec  or  Xipe,  with  whom  he  some- 
times walked  around,  ordering  the  rocks  to  burst  asun- 
der and  give  them  free  passage.  Of  Xipe  it  is  further 
said  that  he  was  bald-headed,  and  it  is  thought  that  the 
shaving  of  the  hair  in  Xalisco  was  done  in  his  honor. 
In  fact  the  customs  and  habits  of  a  Christian  clergy- 
man or  monk  are  mentioned  as  more  generally  observed 
by  him  than  by  his  prelate,  who  is  often  represented  as 
assuming  the  position  of  a  temporal  king.  Still  the 
Mexicans  turned  the  meek  disciple  Xipe  into  a  most 
sanguinary  god,^  as  they  did  his  charitable  master. 

The  grand  success  of  their  labors  and  their  imperish- 
able memories  prove  the  fact  of  the  high  consideration 
in  which  the  companions  of  Quetzalcoatl  were  held 
by  the  natives  on  account  of  their  virtues  and  science. 
The  people,  says  Duran,*^  gave  them  the  title  of  "  Tol- 
tcca,"  which  means,  he  adds,  mechanics  or  experts  in 
every  art.  This  and  other  reasons  intimated  already 
might  suggest  the  idea  that  the  very  name  of  the  Tol- 
tec  nation  was  an  appellation  of  dignity  procured  from 
their  neighbors  and  successors,  through  the  honor- 
orable  designation  of  their  eastern  civilizers.  We  will 
notice  presently  that  Quetzalcoatl  and  his  band  of 
saintly  missionaries  were  instrumental,  indeed,  in  raising 
to  a  higher  plane  the  material  interests  of  the  people 
whom  they  had  undertaken  to  reform,  to  instruct,  and 
we  would  almost  say,  to  Christianize ;  but  it  is  evident, 
from  the  aboriginal  traditions,  that  they  considered  it 
their  first  and  principal  duty  to  instruct  them  in  a 
purer,  probably  in  the  true,  religion. 


'  Baetian,  Bd.  ii.  8.   492 ;    Ban-        "  T.  ii.  p.  73. 
croft,  vol.  iii.  p.  412,  xeq. 


548       HISTOltY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE    COLUMBUH. 


HI 

^t  ■'  11  ^ 

■  '■'*  ',  .M    ' 

{   ,  1  *1  : 

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,     '       >  .                 ' 

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1      - 


Quetztilcoatl,  says  de  Mier,*  was  the  high-priest  of 
Tulla,  and  sent  forth  his  disciples  to  preach  a  new  and 
holy  law  in  Huaxaca  and  other  provinces, — namely,  in 
Tlascala  and  even  in  the  mountains  of  the  wild  Chi- 
chimecs,  the  giants  of  that  time.  It  is  known  with 
certainty,  Duran  states,*^  that,  as  soon  as  he  had  a  few 
disciples  and  had  built  a  few  churches  and  altars,  he 
despatched  his  companions  to  preach  in  the  mountains 
as  well  as  in  the  villages  below,  and  their  voices  were 
heard  as  the  sounds  of  a  trumpet  at  a  distance  of  two 
or  three  leagues.  They  preached,  and  worked  miracles 
in  such  a  manner  that  the  people  gave  them  thenagie. 
of  Toltecas,  and  it  is  certain  that  they  did^wbnderful 
things ;  for  even  to-day  you  can  ask  the  natives.  Who 
made  that  opening  through  the  mountains  ?  who  made 
this  fountain  spring  forth  ?  who  discovered  this  cave  ? 
or  who  erected  that  edifice  ?  and  they  will  invariably 
answer  that  the  Toltecas,  the  disciples  of  the  Papa,  did 
it.  No  wonder  if  Duran ' coiicltRteg^hat  Quetzalcoatl 
must  have  been  some  envoy  of  God,  who,  endowed  with 
power  from  above,  tried,  with  the  assistance  of  wonder- 
working co-laborers,  to  convert  the  Naliua  nations  to 
the  holy  law  of  the  gospel. 

We  have  had  several  occasions  already  to  notice 
Christian  doctrines  and  practices  introduced  by  Quet- 
zalcoatl or  identical  heroes  into  the  religious  institu- 
tions of  the  American  civilized  aborigines,  and  it  may 
suffice  here  to  recall  but  a  few  points  of  the  doctrine 
preached  by  him  and  his  disciples  among  the  nations 
of  New  Spain.  ' 

His  fundamental  dogma  was  the  unity  of  the  true 
God,  whom,  according  to  d'Alva,^  he  called  by  the  sig- 
nificant though  little  euphonious  name  of  "  Teotloque- 


'  Sahagim,  t.  i.  p.  xii. 
«  T.  ii.  pp.  74,  77. 


» Ap.  Baatian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  490. 


QUETZALCOATL    AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY. 


;)49 


iV 


M 


,f 


Nalmaque-Hachiguale-Ipalnemoani-Ilhuicahua-Haltic- 
paque,"  which  meariB,  God  of  the  earth,  Creator  of  all 
things,  worshipped  and  obeyed  by  all  creation,  Master 
of  heaven  and  earth.  Some  writers  add  that  he  also 
taught  the  mysteries  of  the  Blessed  Trinity  and  of  the 
Inearnation.^  --^ 

Togetlier  with  idolatry,  he  severely  (condemned  all 
criminal,  and  especially  human,  sacrifices;  allowing  no 
bloody  offerings  but  those  of  quails,  doves,  and  other 
small  game.^  Such  authorities  as  Las  Casas  ^  and  Sa- 
hagun*  assure  us  that  Quetzalcoatl  would  not  even 
admit  of  any  kind  of  animals  as  oblations  agreeable  to 
God  ;  the  sacrifices  which  he  approved  and  offered  being 
only  of  bread,  flowers,  ircense,  and  other  perfumes," 
It  was  evidently  against  his  will  and  intentions,  if  it 
should  be  true  that  his  severe  self-chastisements  after- 
wards became  an  occasion  for  reintroducing,  even  in 
his  honor,  the  bloody  human  sacrifices  against  which 
he  had  so  earnestly  objected." 

The  gentle  apostle  was  universally  opposed  to  blood- 
shed and  murder,  stopping  his  ears  with  his  fingers 
when  one  would  speak  of  war  to  him.  The  common 
people  loved  and  reverenced  him,  because  he  was  the 
courageous  defender  and  protector  not  only  of  their 
lives,  but  also  of  their  temporal  goods,  against  assault, 
robbery,  and  all  injustice.  Peace  and  charity  were  the 
virtues  upon  which  he  laid  the  greatest  stress/ 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  iii.  p.  367,  ref.  to  Veytia,  I!is- 
toria  Antigua,  lib.  i.  cap.  xv.  ;  Glee- 
son,  vol.  i.  p.  183;  supra,  p.  371, 
»eq. 

»  Baatian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  480,  518. 

•  Coleccion  de  Docuuientos,  t. 
Ixvi.  p.  449. 

♦  T.  i.  p.  xii. 

^  Gf.   Bancroft,   vol.    ii.   p.   705 ; 


vol.  iii.  p.  260 ;  (ileeson,  vol.  i.  p. 
189. 

«  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  48«. 

'  Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t. 
Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  Casas,  p.  449  ;  Sa- 
hagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii  ;  Bancroft,  vol. 
iii.  p.  250;  Short,  p.  207,  ref.  to 
Mendieta,  Hist.  Eccles.,  pp.  82,  8(}. 
92,  397,  and  Clavigero,  Hist.  Ant. 
del  Messico,  pp.  11-13. 


\-*\ 


% 


i   '« 


ill 


550       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   Cr 


J8. 


liaJ 


'-1 


)■    )\ 


ii: 


\i  .,: 


I 
( 


ll:  ! 


ill  ■: 

I  ;     ■<  ■         !■  'f 


Quetzalcoatl  ordained  and  appointee  -any  new  re- 
ligious ceremonies  and  festivals,  and  it  is  held  for 
certain  that  he  ma4e-4liejcalendar  of  all  the  teastsj^ 
The  fast  observed  on  FridaysirTCtiiapaiit  waS"a8criT)ed 
to  the  institution  of  his  equivalent,  Cukulcan,  as  were 
also  referred  to  the  white,  bearded  apostle  the  fasts 
of  forty  and  of  seventy  days,  as  well  as  other  forms  of 
penance  still  observed  by  the  natives  at  the  time  of 
the  Spanish  conquest.^  We  have  noticed  already  ^  that 
the  practice  of  auricular  confession  was  of  the  same 
origin. 

From  these  few  details  of  Quetzalcoatl 's  teaching 
one  naturally  feels  induced  to  believe  that  all  the  ves- 
tiges of  Christianity  of  which  we  have  spoken  had 
their  beginnings  from  him  and  his  disciples  or  co- 
laborers  in  the  American  mission.  And  this  induction 
is  all  the  more  justified  when  we  notice  the  positive 
statements  of  Indian  tradition  that  it  was  he  who  first 
jntraduced^crosses  like  tjiose  which  the  Spaniards  found 
at  CuatulcoT^TlTlsCHiH:,''  Tehuantepec,  and  in  various  •?, 
other  places,  as  remarks  Dr.  de  Mier,  commenting  on  % 
the  history  of  Sahagun,*  and  Duran  in  his  "  History 
of  New  Spain." ' 

The  reader  has  already  observed  that  the  principal  , 
object  of  Quetzalcoatl  and  of  his  companions  was  re- 
ligious reform,  evangelization ;  but  the  spiritual  ad- 
vantages which  they  procured  their  benighted  clients 
were,  as  any  philosopher  will  understand,  accompa- 
nied with  the  most  remarkable  temporal  and  material 
benefits. 

As  a  result  of  his  peaceful  spirit  and  exertions,  the 


I 


i 


'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  259.  '  Supra,  p.  4JK) ;  BaHtian,  Bd.  ii. 

'  Sahagun.  t.  i.  p.  xii ;  Coleccion  S.  371,  492. 

de  DocuTnentOH,  t.  Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  *  Historia  General,  t.  i.  p.  xii. 

Caeas,  p.  453.  *  T.  ii.  p.  70. 


wmn 


i 


QUETZALCOATL    AND    HI8    WHITE   COLONY.         551 

blessing  of  peace  settled  down  upon  the  city  of  Cholula, 
which  he  had  chosen  for  his  residence.  War  was  not 
known  during  his  sojourn  there ;  the  reign  of  old 
Saturn  repeated  itself.  The  enemies  of  the  Cliolulans 
came  with  perfect  safety  to  his  temple,  and  many 
wealthy  princes  of  other  countries  erected  new  ora- 
tories for  the  religion  he  was  preaching.  Thus  Short, 
referring  to  Mendieta.* 

Peace,  the  very  foundation  of  all  earthly  boon,  par- 
ticularly for  warlike  nations  as  the  Nahuas  were,  gave 
to  Quetzalcoatl  and  his  companions  an  opportunity  to 
develop  the  various  arts  of  peace.  De  las  Casas  testi- 
fies that  the  first  reason  why  the  Cliolulans  reverenced 
so  highly  the  memory  of  Quezalcoatl  was  because  he 
taught  them  the  art  of  casting  gold  and  silver  and  of 
working  those  precious  metals, — a  craft  upon  which 
they  highly  prided  themselves,  and  which  secured 
them  considerable  income  from  their  neighbors.'^ 
Quetzalcoatl  was,  indeed,  a  great  artificer  and  very  in- 
genious, ^tmLjaught  several  mechanical  trades.  Not 
only  the  silversmith,  but  also  the  sculpfofTtEe^ painter, 
and  the  architect  flourished  under  the  patronage  of  the 
god-king,  as  we  are  led  to  believe  from  the  testimony 
of  both  tradition  and  material  remains.^  Of  all  the 
mechanical  sciences,  however,  that  are  credited  to  the 
white  missionary,  the  one  of  cutting  precious  stones 
is  best  remembered  in  the  native  traditions ;  and  the 
dressing  of  the  green  stone,  called  chalchiuite,  has 
long  been  a  profitable  industry  of  the  Cholulans.* 

A^rrjp.^iltnre,  the  noblest  andmostJjiiportanlL_Qf  all 
occupations,  seems  to  have  been  greatly  improved  in 


*  Short,  p.  270,  ref.  to  Mendieta, 
Hist.  Ecclee.,  p.  82,  seq. 

*  Coleccion  de  Documentoe,  t. 
Ixvi.,  B.  de  las  Casas,  p.  449 ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  pp.  240,  250. 


•  Short,  p.  270 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii. 
p.  256. 

♦  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  501 ;   Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  pp.  240,  265. 


i   i 


!f 


552        HISTORY    OV    A.MER1CA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


Hi 


1  I  <:: 


11! 


Mexico  by  the  followers  of  Quetzalcoatl.  It  is  admitted 
that  tlie  Olmecs,  the  Toltecs'  predecessors,  raised  maize, 
small  red  pepper  or  chile,  and  beans  ;  but  the  subsequent 
nations  were  indebted  to  the  Toltecs  for  a  small  species 
of  wheat,  the  cotton-plant,  the  allspice-tree,  and  for 
other  most  useful  vegetables.' 

It  is,  finally,  said  of  Zamna  that  he  was  the  teacher 
of  letters  and  the  author  of  all  civilization  in  Yucatan.* 
Nadaillac  remarks''  that,  according  to  the  legends 
of  the  Chibcas  of  Colombia,  those  people  wandered 
about  naked,  without  laws  and  without  (uilture,  until 
a  stranger,  Bochica,  came  from  distant  regions  and 
taught  them  the  art  of  clothing  themselves,  of  building 
houses,  and  of  living  in  society. 

Under  the  beneficial  influence  of  Quetzalcoatl  and  of 
his  companions,  Cholula  soon  acquired  great  promi- 
nence as  a  Toltec  city,  and  prosperity  reigned  in  all 
the  country  around.  Tradition  tells  us  that  wherever 
Quetzalcoatl  ruled  there  were  riches  and  abundance, 
and  the  air  was  filled  with  fragrance  and  song-birds, — 
an  actual  golden  era ;  but  when  he  went  south  with 
his  song-birds  drought  set  in  and  his  palaces  of  gold, 
silver,  and  precious  stones  were  destroyed.  It  Ls  stated, 
indeed,  that  already  in  Tulla,  his  first  American  resi- 
dence, Quetzalcoatl  was  very  rich.  He  had  whole 
houses  made  of  chalchiuites,  others  made  of  silver, 
others  of  white  and  red  shells,  others  of  precious  wood, 
others  of  turquoises,  and  others  yet  of  rich  feathers. 
He  had  all  that  was  needed  to  eat  and  to  drink ;  maize 
was  abundant,  and  a  head  of  it  was  as  much  as  a  man 
could  carry  clasped  in  his  arms ;  pumpkins  measured 
a  fathom  round ;  the  stalks  of  the  wild  amaranth  were 


'  Clavigero,  Storia  Ant.  del  Mes- 
sico,  t.  i.  p.  127,  ap.  Bancroft  vol. 
ii.  p.  :M3,  n. 


»  Short,  p.  229. 

'  Prehistoric  America,  p.  460. 


QUETZALCOATL    AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY.         558 


HO  large  and  tliiek  that  people  climbed  tlieni  like  trees ; 
eotton  wa«  gathered  in  of  all  colors, — red,  scarlet,  yel- 
low, violet,  whitish,  green,  bine,  blackish,  gray,  orange, 
and  tawny, — and  these  colors  on  the  cotton  were  natu- 
ral to  it ;  thus  it  grew.  Further,  it  is  said  that  in  the 
city  of  Tulla  there  abounded  many  sorts  of  birds  that 
sang  with  much  sweetness.  The  vassals  or  adherents 
of  Quetzalcoatl  were  also  very  rich  and  wanted  nothing  ; 
they  were  never  hungry,  they  never  lacked  maize  nor 
ate  the  small  ears  of  it,  but  burned  them  like  w(X)d  to 
heat  the  baths.' 

It  is  likewise  reported  that  one  of  the  most  pros- 
perous eras  in  the  later  history  of  the  peninsula  of 
Yucatan  followed  tipon  the  appearance  of  Cukulcan.'* 

We  should  not  be  puzzled  nor  astonished  at  the  won- 
derful material  advantages  resulting  from  the  preach- 
ing and  labors  of  Quetzalcoatl  and  of  his  companions, 
when  we  reflect  that  purer  religion  and  purer  morals 
necessarily  pave  the  road  towards  the  happiness  of 
nations ;  when  we  remember  that  many  of  the  most 
flourishing  cities  of  Europe  received  their  origin  and  in- 
crease from  similar  holy  bands  of  missionaries  sent  forth 
by  the  ancient  Order  of  St.  Benedict ;  when,  finally,  we 
see  the  same  kind  of  progress  going  on  under  our  very 
eyes,  as  at  Mount  Angel,  in  Oregon,  for  example,  where, 
at  the  same  time  that  they  teach  religion  and  good 
morals,  the  Benedictine  monks  also  lead  the  van  of 


I 


•Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  11:5;  vol. 
iii.  pp.  238,  240,  241  ;  Prescott, 
Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  61, 
writes  in  the  same  manner  :  "  Un- 
der him,  the  earth  teemed  with 
fniits  and  flowers,  without  the 
pains  of  culture.  An  ear  of  Indian 
corn  was  as  much  as  a  single  man 
could  C4irry.  The  cotton,  as  it  grew, 
took  of  its  own  accord,  the  rich 


dyes  of  human  art.  The  air  was 
filled  with  intoxicating  perfumes 
and  the  sweet  melody  of  birds. 
In  short,  these  were  the  halcyon 
days  which  And  a  place  in  the 
mythic  systems  of  so  many  nations 
in  the  Old  World.  It  was  the 
golden  age  of  Anahuac." 
"  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  lU). 


564        HISTORY    OF    AMKRICA    HKFOHK    COLUMBUS. 


agrifulturiHtH,  of  mechanics,  of  Hcicntists,  of  lingiUHtB, 
and  of  the  moHt  learned  in  every  profession. 

If  we  consider,  however,  the  vastness  of  the  prov- 
inces in  which  Quetzalcoatl  is  said  to  have  labored,  the 
greatness  of  his  accomplishments,  and  the  durability  of 
Iiis  success,  all  of  which  are  amply  established  by  native 
legends  and  ancient  monuments,  we  must  admit  that, 
without  a  signal  miracle  of  Almighty  God,  these  result*< 
could  never  have  been  attained  by  one  leader,  however 
ingenious,  having  but  fourteen  co-laborers,  however 
skilful.  We  cannot,  therefore,  prevent  the  suspicion 
that,  centuries  after  the  events,  the  Mexican  and  other 
American  aborigines  have,  as  it  is  their  woni_ta_ilQ. 
confounded  a  series  of  facts  into  one  fplsodeTand  a  suc- 
cession of  persons  with  the  same  religion,  habits,  and 
exertions  into  one  and  the  same  hero,  whom  they  dei- 
fied under  one  collective  name.  And  again,  it  seems 
difficult  to  admit  that  a  band  of  eight  or  even  fifteen 
persons  were  equal  to  the  task  of  assailing  the  warlike 
Nahua  nations  in  their  religious  errors  and  immoral 
practices,  of  teaching  them  arts  and  sciences,  and  to 
rise  at  once  to  the  possession  of  supreme  power  among 
them.  Were  there  no  tradition,  no  testimony  whatever 
on  this  subject,  yet  good  sense  and  general  history 
would  suggest  the  opinion  that  Quetzalcoatl  must  have 
been  accompanied  and  sustained,  not  only  by  a  few 
harmless  religionists,  but  also  by  a  considerable  colony 
of  white  strong  people  from  his  own  eastern  country 

This  question  of  lay  people  having  come  with'Quet- 
zalcoatl  and  having  settled  upon  the  plateaux  of  New 
Spain  has  often  been  either  slighted  or  altogether  neg- 
lected by  modern  historians ;  yet  not  a  few  evidences  of 
Bueiua.fact  have- beeo  reported  by  the  first  Spanish 
missionaries.  Torquemada  states  tEaf~a""ban^of^people" 
"^melromthe  North  by  way  of  Panuco,  dressed  in  long 


w  ' 


QUETZALCOATL   AND    HIH   WHITK   COLONY.         .ViFt 


black  robes ;  that  thence  they  went  to  TuUa,  where 
they  were  well  received,  but  this  region  being  already 
thickly  populated,  they  moved  to  Cholula.  They  were 
great  artists  and  skilled  in  working  metals.  With 
them  wa«  Quetzalcoatl,  a  man  with  a  fair  and  ruddy 
complexion  and  a  long  bearcl^ ^ 

"  According  to~ttrFtJiTtch^s'  traditions,  the  primitive 
tribe  of  the  Nahoas,  the  ancestorsjif-tlie^oltecs,  lived 
in  a  distant  East,  beyond  immense  seas  and~land»r- 
AmoT»gst  tke  families  that  bore  witli  Tea«t  patience  this 
long  repose  and  immobility,  those  of  Canub  and  of 
Tlocab  may  be  cited,  for  they  were  the  first  who  deter- 
mined to  leave  their  <^ountry.  The  Nahoas  sailed  in 
seven  barks  or  ships,  which  Sahagun  calls  Chicomoztoc 
or  the  seven  grottos.  It  was  at  Panucopnear^Tampico, 
that  those  strangers  disembarked.  They  established 
themselves  at  Paxil,  witli_llie.  ^Yotanites'  consent,  and 
their  state  took  the  name  of  HueluVe^opallan.  Itis 
not  stated  from  whence  they  came,  but  merely  that 
they  came  out  of  the  regions  Avhere  the  sun  rises.  The 
supreme  command  was  in  the  hand  of  a  chieftain  whom 
history  calls  Quetzalcohuatl,  that  is  to  say.  Lord  par 
excellence/^  'Bancroft  thus  relates  another  version  of 
the  great  Indian  tradition.'^  Bandelier  thinks  it  safe  to 
say  that  Quetzalcoatl  began  his  career  as  a  leader  of  the 
migration  moving  southward,  with  a  principal  sojourn 
at  Cholula,  introducing  arts  and  purer  worship.  This 
is  substantially  the  view  taken  by  J.  G.  Miiller,  Pres- 
cott,  and  Wuttke.^ 

A  ^"  '-c;  remarkable  incident  of  Quetzalcoatl's  history 
is,  as  narrated  by  Sahagun,*  that,  after  leaving  Ono- 
hualco  or  Yucatan,  yet  before  returning  to  his  native 


Hi 


..it 


'  Torqneinada,  t.  i.  p.  245,  i^eq., 
ap.  Short,  p.  268,  n.  1. 
'  Vol.  iii.  p.  270. 


'  Winsor,  vol.  i.  p.  432. 
♦  T.  i.  p.  xii. 


/556       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BfJFORE   COLl  MBUS. 


I 


f.  \  ■  \  i: 


Mi 

If  ^ 


eastern  country,  ho  went  to  visit  in  their  first  settlement 
his  former  disciples,  who,  it  is  said,  refused  to  reiurn 
with  him,  hecause  they  felt  well  where  they  were,  and 
were  married  in  the  land  of  their  adoption.  This  la>it 
particular,  altogether  unsuitable  for  his  preaching  co'  .- 
panions,  who  are  universally  stated  to  have  lived  a 
chaste,  single  life,  is  but  history  repeating  itself  with 
successive  Spanish  and  French  colonists. 

The  reader  will  have  noticed  that,  according  to  Tor- 
quemada,  the  skilful  Toltecas  arrived  from  the  North, 
and  such  is  the  opinion  of  several  other  writers, — 
namely,  that  the-p«egent  States  of^ Florida  and_X)hia,L_^ 
with  other  adjoining  StatesTwere  the  Toltecs'  prehis- 
toric Tlapallan.  Should  this  theory  prove  to  be  the 
correct  one,  it  would  be  a  considerable  help  towards  the 
explanation  of  the  historical  difficulties  under  consider- 
ation, while  it  would  be  in  perfect  accord  both  with  other 
aboriginal  traditions  and-with  the  Icelandic  ancient 
—tfiCiirdSj  which  are  justly  consmered^  tTHTntylTs'TiistorP"' 
cal  sources,  fn  fact,  the  Indians  who,  about  the  year 
1750,  abandoned  the  Stiites  of  Florida,  Ohio,  and  others 
of  that  neighborhood  were  telling  that  in  the  long  ago 
their  hunting-grounds  had  been  tjiken,  iipjby  a  white 
race,  that  miide  use  of  iron  implements.  FartheF'T^ir'^' 
we  shall  speak  ofTKaT^me  wrmitryv^s  known  by  the 
Scandinavians  under  the  name  of  White-man's  Land 
or  Ireland,  th p.,  Great.' 


r  irei^ 

nSotii  older  observatuins  and  recent  studies  have  sin- 
gularly corroborated  the  natives'  tradition  regarding 
Quetzalcoatl's  white  colony.  Bancroft'^  relates  with 
innocent  gusto  how  the  women  of  Jalisco  found  great 
favor  in  the  eyes  of  the  reverend  Father  Torquemada, 
who  was  shown  one  there,  he  says,  that  might  be  con- 


'  Gaffarel,  D^oouv.,  t.  i.  p.  425 ; 
Icelandic  MSS. 


»  Vol.  ii.  p.  ($25. 


mmmmmmmmA 


QUETZAUXMTL    AND    HIS    WHITE   COLONY.         557 

sidered  a  miracle  of  beauty  ;  iiuliiu4r***~iair  was  her 
skin  that  she  looked  like  an  P^nglish  uiilk-maiiL  says  a 
more  recent  author  ;  so  well-proporttonecrwas  he\'  body 
and  so  regular  her  features  that  the  most  skilful 
painter  would  have  been  put  to  it  to  do  her  justice. 
And  these  flattering  notices  he  extended  to  the  people 
of  that  country  in  general.'  Another  racial  feature 
which  fair  women  admire  was  found  by  Oviedo  iu  Nic- 
aragua, on  a  man  about  seventy  years  of  age,  who, 
namely,  had  a  hjugi  flowing  wjijte  beard.'^ 

The  scholar'llornius  taTces  great  paTns  to  prove  that 
the  Americans  are  no  descendants  of  the  Celts  nor  of 
the  Necw<3gians,  but  he  careKHTy  1imnces~inr~trjceej)ir(H 
in  regard  to  the  Yucatecs.^  Mr.  Aubin,  of  Mexico, 
combines  botli  ancient  and  modern  testimonials  when, 
from  Aztec  manuscripts  and  late  observations,  he  con- 
cludes that,  as  there  are  indisputable  evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity in  America  before  Colund)us,  so  there  are  of  a 
_whitfi  population  vand  he  is  of  the  opiiilmrthanhG  two" 
facts  are  closely  related  to  each  other  and  prove  a  third 
one, — to  wit,  that  in  prehistoric  times  there  has  existed 
a  frequent,  if  not  ji  regular,  intercourse  betwewi^  Amer- 
ica ^uLJEurope.*,  Our  Tale  "erudite  and  critical  liis~ 
torian,  Justin  Winsor,  sets  forth  the  conclusions  of 
Bandelier,  which  we  have  just  noticed, — namely,  that 
Quetzalcoatl  and  his  companions,  the  apostles  and  civ- 
ilizers  of  the  Nahua  tribes,  were  the  leaders  of  eastern 
immigrants  on  their  inarch  to  more  southern  countries.'* 
One  of  our  most  learned  and  sensible  anthropologists, 
de  Quatrefages,"  admits  the  ancient  presence  of  white 
European  nations  on  American  soil,  when  he  thinks  it 


'  Vol.  ii.  1).  025,  n.  82.  *  MonioireH  tUw    Antiquairos    dii 

'  HiHtorin  (Jen.,  t.  iv.  p.  Ill,  up.  Nord,  1840-1844,  p.  J), 

liancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  731.  **  Vol.  i.  p.  4:12. 

»  Lib.  i.  «ip.  iv.  p.  28.  «  P.  :UH. 


jl 


3   ' 


_,  . , 


■-r^'M 


r  <t 


ii :! , 


H:u 


'« 


558        HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

almost  evident  that  the~"Seaudinavmn8jniist  have  jntrifcL/ 
dnt^tliek-'^bkUiak.AUiong  several  tribes  of  the  Amer- 
iran  shore,  and  that  the  factsTRJtlCed'lBy  P.  Martyf^ 
l^sTand" James,  in  regard  to  the  haiu  of  the  Parians, 
_the_Lee-Panis^  the  Kiawas,  etc.,  are  one  of  the  proofs"^ 
of  the  Scandinavians^  extension  beyond  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  • 

For  all  these  reasons  it  would  be  hypercriticism  to 
deny  the  fact  that  but  a  few  centuries  after  Christ  a 
colony  of  Christian  emigrants  from  Europe  sailed  either 
to  Mexico  directly  or  to  the  eastern  coasts  of  these 
United  States,  from  which  they  afterwards  extended  in 
a  southwesterly  direction,  even  though  the  American 
records  of  their  establishment  may  be  scanty  and  their 
history  be  a  blank  page  in  the  annals  of  our  aborigines, 
which  almost  exclusively  refer  to  their  leader.  We 
will,  later  on,  gather  more  information  on  this  interest- 
ing subject  by  drawing  from  European  sources,  but  we 
should  now  continue  to  hear  testimony  from  Indian 
tradition  regarding  the  white  colony's  chieftain. 

The  history  of  Quetzalcoatl's  missionary  career  offers 
many  analogies  with  that  of  our  Lord,  who  went  about 
doing  good,  whom  at  one  time  the  Jews  wanted  to 
make  king,  whom  they  denied  and  persecuted,  and  whom 
they  worshipped  after  his  death.*  According  to  Duran,^ 
the  apostle  made  a  great  number  of  conversions  imme- 
diately after  his  landing  in  Panuco,  to  the  great  dis- 
pleasure of  the  idolaters,  whose  priest,  Tezcatlipoca  by 
name,  pretended  to  have  come  down  from  heaven  to 
oppose  the  new  doctrine.  He  gathered  around  him  all 
that  was  vicious  and  wicked,  and  commenced  to  perse- 
cute the  holy  men,  driving  them  from  place  to  place 
until  they  were  obliged  to  seek  refuge  in  TuUa.     Here 


'  Act«  X.  38 ;  St.  John  vi.  15. 


»  T.  ii.  p.  75. 


amam 


QUETZALCOATL    AND   HIS    WHITE   COLONY. 


559 


Topiltzin  stopped  for  some  months  and  years ;  but  his 
enemies  followed  him  and  caused  him  so  many  diffi- 
culties that,  tired  at  last  of  the  persecution,  he  deter- 
mined to  leave  the  city  to  which  he  had  procured  peace 
and  wealth.^  Sahagun  gives  Hiiemac  as  the  name  of 
Topiltzin's  or  Quetzalcoatl's  enemy  in  Tulla,  and  states 
that  he  killed  seven  of  his  disciples.^ 

The  fugitive  passed  along  the  border  of  the  lake  of 
Mexico,  before  the  city  was  built,  directing  his  steps  to 
Cholula,  where  the  inhabitants  received  him  with  the 
greatest  reverence,  and  were  blest,  as  we  noticed  before, 
by  his  presence  for  a  space  of  twenty  years.  Ever 
since  its  inhabitants  have  excelled  in  various  mechanical 
arts,  especially  in  the  working  of  metals  and  in  the 
manufacture  of  cotton  and  agave  cloths  and  of  a  deli- 
cate kind  of  pottery,  rivalling,  it  is  said,  that  of  Flor- 
ence in  beauty.''  This  place  became  not  only  the 
richest,  but  also  the  holiest  of  all  Mexico,  and  the  great 
centre  of  devotion  and  pilgrimage  for  all  the  neigh- 
boring provinces.* 

Sahagun  relates  that  Huemac,  persevering  in  his 
wicked  persecution,  finally  appeared  against  him  with  a 
powerful  army  at  the  gates  of  Cholula ;  and  the  meek 
apostle,  rather  than  to  expose  his  friends  to  the  horrors 
of  war,  quietly  retired  by  the  road  he  had  come,  taking 
with  him  four  of  the  principal  and  most  virtuous 
youths  of  that  city.  He  journeyed  for  a  hundred  and 
fifty  leagues,  till  he  came  to  the  sea  in  a  distant  prov- 
ince called  Goatzacoalco.*^      It  is  not  stated  whether 


>Cf.   Short,    p.    270;     Biincroft, 
vol.  iii.  p.  240. 
»T.  i.  p.  xii. 

*  Preacott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  ii.  p.  4. 

*  Short,  p.  245  ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii. 
p.     251  ;    Sahagun,    t.    i.    p.    xii ; 


Coleccion  de  Documentos,  t.  Ixvi. , 
B.  de  las  Casas,  pp.  440,  451. 

*  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii  ;  Bancroft, 
vol.  iii.  p.  251  ;  Coleccion  de  Docu- 
mentos, t.  Ixvi.,  B.  de  lae  Casas,  p. 
451. 


I 


it 


»'WZ^.-> 


mi 


iM 


560       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

further  persecution  was  the  cause  of  it ;  but  after  an 
uncertain  length  of  time  Quetzalcoatl  disappeared  from 
Goatzacoalco,  and  about  the  same  epoch  made  his 
appearance  in  Yucatan  as  the  famous  reformer  and 
civilizer  of  that  peninsula.  The  hero,  here  called  Cu- 
kulcan,  entered  from  the  We3t  with  nineteen  followers, 
all  wearing  full  beards,  long  robes,  and  sandals,  but 
no  head-covering.' 

Having  thus  left  the  provinces  of  the  Naliua  nations, 
Quetzalcoatl  seems  to  have  been  at  last  delivered  of  the 
relentless  pursuits  of  Tezcatlipoca,  who  had  left  no 
stone  unturned  to  drive  away  the  declared  enemy  of 
human  sacrifices  and  of  idols.  It  may  be  of  interest  to 
the  reader  if  we  copy  here  a  page  of  Bancroft  ^  relating 
in  a  quaint  form  one  of  the  fantastic  means  to  which 
the  unscrupulous  enemy  had  resorted  :  "  Tezcatlipoca 
turned  himself  into  a  hoary-headed  old  man,  and  went 
to  the  house  of  Quetzalcoatl,  saying  to  the  servants 
there,  *  I  wish  to  see  and  speak  to  your  master.'  Then 
the  servants  said, '  Go  away,  old  man,  thou  canst  not 
see  our  king,  for  he  is  sick ;  thou  wilt  annoy  him  and 
cause  him  heaviness.'  But  Tezcatlipoca  insisted,  and 
said,  '  I  must  see  him.'  Then  the  servants  bid  the  sor- 
cerer to  wait,  and  they  went  in  and  told  Quetzalcoatl 
how  an  old  man  without  affirmed  that  he  would  see 
the  king  and  would  not  be  denied.  And  Quetzalcoatl 
answered,  *  Let  him  come  in ;  behold,  for  many  days 
have  I  waited  for  his  coming.'  So  Tezcatlipoca  en- 
tered, and  he  said  to  the  sick  man,  *  How  art  thou  ?' 
adding,  further,  that  he  had  a  medicine  for  him  to 
drink.  Then  Quetzalcoatl  answered,  '  Thou  art  wel- 
come, old  man ;  behold,  for  many  days  have  I  waited 

*  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  xii ;  Bancroft        ■'  Vol.  iii.  p.  242,  ref.  to  Kings- 
vol.  Hi.  p.  465;  vol.  v.  p.  CAU.  borough,  Mex.  Antiq.,  vol.  vii.  p. 

109,  and  iSahagini,  t.  i.  lib.  iii. 


■■'^ttSSS^^ 


lj(MMfifSSi*HMMM 


gMinwQjQnm^ggljg^ganUBttu 


QUETZALCOATL   AND    HIS   WHITE   COLONY.         561 

for  thee.'  And  the  old  sorcerer  spake  again  :  '  How  is 
thy  body,  and  how  art  thou  in  health  ?'  *  I  am  ex- 
ceedingly sick,'  said  Quetzalcoatl ;  *  all  my  body  is  in 
pain ;  I  cannot  move  my  hands  nor  my  feet.'  Then 
Tezcatlipoca  answered,  '  Behold  this  medicine  that  I 
have ;  it  is  good  and  wholesome  and  intoxicating.  If 
thou  wilt  drink  it  thou  shalt  be  intoxicated  and  healed 
and  eased  at  the  heart,  and  thou  shalt  have  in  mind 
the  toils  and  fatigues  of  death  and  of  thy  departure.' 
*  Where,'  cried  Quetzalcoatl,  '  have  I  to  go  ?'  '  To  Tul- 
lantlapallan,'  replied  Tezcatlipoca,  *  where  there  is  an- 
other old  man  waiting  for  thee.  He  and  thou  shall 
talk  together,  and  on  thy  return  thence  thou  shalt  be 
as  a  youth,  yea,  as  a  boy.  And  Quetzalcoatl,  hearing 
these  words,  felt  his  heart  move,  while  the  old  sorcerer, 
insisting  more  and  more,  said,  *  Sir,  drink  this  medi- 
cine.' But  the  king  did  not  wish  to  drink  it.  The 
sorcerer,  however,  insisted  :  *  Drink,  my  lord,  or  thou 
wilt  be  sorry  for  it  hereafter ;  at  least,  rub  a  little  on 
thy  brow  and  taste  a  sip.'  So  Quetzalcoatl  tried  and 
tasted  it  and  drank,  saying,  *  What  is  this  ?  It  seems 
to  be  a  thing  very  good  and  savory ;  already  I  feel  my- 
self healed  and  quit  of  mine  infirmity ;  already  I  am 
well.'  Then  the  old  sorcerer  said  again,  *  Drink  once 
more,  my  lord,  since  it  is  good ;  so  thou  shalt  be  the 
more  perfectly  healed.'  And  Quetzalcoatl  drank  again 
and  made  himself  drunk  ;  and  he  began  to  weep,  and 
his  heart  was  eased  and  moved  to  depart,  and  he  could 
not  rid  himself  of  the  thought  that  he  must  go,  for 
this  was  the  snare  and  deceit  of  Tezcatlipoca.  So 
Quetzalcoatl  set  out  upon  his  journey,  and  Tezcatli- 
poca proceeded  further  guilefully  to  kill  many  Toltecs, 
and  to  ally  himself  by  marriage  with  Vemac,  who  was 
the  temporal  lord  of  the  Toltecs,  even  as  Quetzalcoatl 
was  the  spiritual  rulor  of  that  people." 

I.— 36 


m.^ 


562       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

Many  more  such  fabulous  incidents  of  Quetzalcoatl's 
migrations  are  reported  in  the  ancient  Mexican  tra- 
ditions, and  some  of  them  are  more  or  less  analogous 
to  the  miracles  performed  by  our  Lord  Jesus-Christ. 

The  legends  of  the  Yucatecs  represent  Cukulcan  in 
all  the  same  principal  features  of  Quetzalcoatl,  while 
differing,  however,  in  some  secondary  aspects. 

It  is  said  that  Mitla,  the  capital  of  Zapoteca,  which, 
for  the  beauty  of  its  edifices,  favorably  compared  with 
the  other  cities  of  Yucatan,  was  built  by  Cukulcan  and 
his  disciples.  A  tradition  of  that  province  tells  us 
that  one  day  an  old  man  of  venerable  aspect  suddenly 
came  out  of  the  lake  Huixa,  accompanied  by  a  young 
girl  of  incomparable  beauty.  This  old  man  was  clothed 
in  a  dress  and  mantle  of  brilliant  blue,  and  wore  a  mitre 
on  his  head.  He  gave  to  the  country  wise  and  just 
laws,  and  disappeared  as  mysteriously  as  he  had  arrived.* 

Cukulcan  was  seen  at  several  places  in  Yucatan,  but 
at  last  settled  in  Chichen  Itza,  where  he  governed  for 
ten  years.  Herrera  gives  him  two  brothers,  and  states 
that  the  three  collected  a  large  population  and  reigned 
together  in  peace  for  many  years  over  the  Itzas  at 
Chichen,  where  they  erected  magnificent  temples  in 
honor  of  their  gods.  The  three  brothers  lived  a  most 
holy  and  continent  life,  neither  marrying  nor  associ- 
ating with  women  ;  but  at  last  one  of  them,  Cukulcan, 
left  his  companions  and  adopted  Mayapan  as  his  capital, 
which  he  also  built  up  and  beautified,  erecting  grand 
temples  for  the  gods  and  palaces  for  his  subordinate 
lords,  among  whom  he  divided  the  surrounding  country 
and  towns.  He  ruled  here  most  wisely  and  prosper- 
ously for  several  years ;  but  after  fully  establishing 
the  government  and  instructing  his  followers  in  regard 

*  Nadaillac,  Prehistoric  America,     p.  255 ;   Herrera,  dec.   iii.  lib.  ii. 
p.  363,  ref.  to  Torqueinada,  vol.  i.     cap.  xi.  ;  and  Veytia,  lib.  i.  p.  164. 


QUETZALCOATL   AND   HIS   WHITE   COLONY.         563 


, 


to  their  duties  and  the  proper  means  of  ruling  the 
country  peacefully,  he  determined,  for  some  motive  not 
revealed,  to  abandon  the  city  and  the  peninsula,^ — as 
a  shadow  of  Christ  ascending  to  heaven. 

Sahagun,^  also,  notices  the  mysterious  departure  of 
Cukulcan  from  Yucatan ;  where,  when  about  to  leave, 
the  master  divided  his  government  among  four  of 
his  disciples.  In  like  manner  did  he  send  back  to 
Cholula  the  four  young  men  whom  he  had  taken  along 
with  him  down  to  the  ocean  in  the  province  of  Goat- 
zacoalco;  and  at  their  return  the  Cholulans  divided 
their  state  into  four  principalities,  and  gave  the  gov- 
ernment to  the  four  favorites  of  their  god-king.  Four 
of  their  descendants  always  ruled  over  these  tetrarchies 
till  the  Spaniards  came.^ 

Duran  *  relates  as  follows  the  departure  of  Topiltzin 
from  Tulla :  "  After  having  made  an  important  prophecy, 
he  commenced  to  travel  from  village  to  village,  giving 
its  proper  name  to  every  place  and  mountain,  and  a 
great  multitude  of  people  followed  him  from  every 
locality.  He  went  on  till  he  reached  the  sea,  and 
there,  with  a  single  word,  made  an  aperture  in  a  high 
mountain  and  entered  into  it."  Others  say  that  he 
extended  his  mantle  on  the  sea,  made  a  sign  with  his 
hand  over  it,  and  stepped  upon  it ;  and  lo !  sitting  down, 
he  commenced  his  voyage  on  the  water,  and  was  never 
seen  again.  We  noticed  before  that,  according  to  another 
version,  he  sailed  on  a  raft  made  of  snakes.  Prescott 
says,®  "  When  he  reached  the  shores  of  the  Mexican 
Gulf,  he  took  leave  of  his  followers,  promising  that  he 
and  his  descendants  would  revisit  them  hereafter  ;  and 


ill 


1  Bancrofc,  vol.  iii.  p.  465 ;  vol. 
V.  pp.  619,  620,  ref.  to  Herrera, 
Hist.  Gener.,  dec.  iv.  lib.  x.  cap. 
ii.,  and  others. 

»  T.  i.  p.  xii. 


*  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  259. 

♦  T.  ii.  p.  75. 
"  Conquest    of    Mexico,    vol.    1 

p.  61. 


564       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 


'?■ 


Hi  \ 


then,  entering  his  wizard  skiff,  made  of  serpents'  skins, 
embarked  on  the  great  ocean  for  the  fabled  land  of 
Tlapallan."  The  Codex  Chimalpopoca  states  that  he 
died  in  Tlapallan  four  days  after  his  return.^ 

Few  benefactors  of  mankind  receive  during  their  life 
the  reward  due  to  their  eminent  services.  First  after 
their  death  are  just  honors  paid  to  them  and  statues 
erected  in  honor  of  them.  Thus,  also,  was  Quetzalcoatl 
deified  after  his  departure,  and  honored  even  with 
human  sacrifices,  especially  at  the  centres  of  pilgrimage 
to  his  shrines  in  Cholula,  Chiuhen,  and  Mayapan.^ 

The  Spaniards  found  the  gentle  apostle  worshipped 
as  a  god  with  bloody,  murderous  oblations, — a  double 
crime,  against  which  he  had  sc»  loudly  protested ;  a 
sign,  also,  that  the  purer  innocent  religion  which  he 
had  taught  had,  in  its  most  fundamental  doctrines,  been 
gradually  lost  or  suddenly  subverted  in  later  times. 

The  primary  cause  of  the  downfall  of  Quetzalcoatl's 
religious  establishments  in  America  may  have  been  the 
misbehavior  of  his  disciples  and  colonists ;  since  it  is  a 
plain  fact  in  general  history  that,  wherever  the  Chris- 
tian religion  was  perverted  or  destroyed,  the  catastrophe 
had  been  prepared  by  the  relaxation  of  its  adherents. 
This  opinion  gains  ground  from  the  reports  of  the 
local  traditions  which,  as  we  noticed  before,'  state  that 
at  the  end  of  the  apostle's  career  his  countrymen  of 
TuUa  refused  to  leave  with  him  a  district  that  was  in 
the  hands  of  his  enemies,  and  were  well  pleased  with 
their  unholy  alliances  with  the  idolatrous  women  of 
Mexico.  Bancroft  also  relates*  that  the  former 
laborers  of  Cukulcan  at  Chichen  Itza  gradually  gave 


*  BrasBeur  de  Bourbourg,  Hist. 
Nat.  Civ.,  t.  ii.  p.  18,  ap.  Bancroft, 
vol.  iii.  p.  465,  n.  13. 

'  B  de  las  Caeas,  t.  Ixvi.  p.  449, 


Coleccion   de   Documentos ;    Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  pp.  251,  465. 

'  Supra,  p.  556. 

♦  Vol.  V.  p.  620. 


QUETZALCOATL   AND   HIS   WHITE  COLONY. 


565 


themselves  up,  after  his  departure,  to  an  irregular  and 
dissolute  life,  and  their  conduct  finally  moved  their 
subjects  to  revolt,  and  to  kill  them. 

The  immediate  cause,  however,  evidently  was  the 
fight  of  idolatry  with  its  horrible  sacrifices  against  the 
newly  published  religion. 

Some  writers  think  that  the  perverse  mixture  of 
cruel  idolatry  and  gentle  Christianity  may  have  been 
the  result  of  slow  corruption  of  the  latter  in  the  midst 
of  semi-civilized  American  nations ;  and  the  modern 
religious  history  of  these  United  States  affords  but  too 
many  sad  arguments  for  that  opinion, — namely,  the 
loss  of  thousands  of  individuals,  in  high  and  low  posi- 
tions, who,  in  their  native  country,  were  most  devoted 
to  a  religion  similar  to,  or  identical  with,  that  of  Quet- 
zalcoatl,  and  are  daily  corrupted  by  the  boasts  and 
examples  of  older  infidel  settlers. 

Yet,  if  we  establish  our  conclusions  on  ancient  tra- 
dition rather  than  on  modern  experience,  we  must  feel 
inclined  to  think  that  the  mongrel  confusion  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  inhuman  idolatry  in  the  so-called  civil- 
ized countries  of  ancient  America  was  the  result  of 
bloody  wars  between  the  adherents  of  either  religion. 
"  At  all  events,"  says  the  abbreviator  Short,*  "  Quetzal- 
coatl  had  an  enemy,  Tezcatlipoca,  whose  worship  was 
quite  opposite  in  its  character  to  that  of  the  former,  being 
cruel  and  celebrated  with  horrid  human  sacrifices.  A 
struggle  ensued  in  Tulla  or  Tollan,  between  the  opposing 
systems,  which  resulted  favorably  to  the  bloody  deities 
and  the  faction  that  sought  to  establish  their  woi-ship 
in  preference  to  the  peaceful  and  ascetic  service  of 
Quetzalcoatl."  *  Tezcatlipoca  or  Huemac,  as  we  just 
noticed,  after  driving  the  meek  reformer  from  Tulla, 


P.  269. 


'  Cf.  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  241,  seq. 


f'i 


ill 


566       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

appeared  against  him  before  Cholula  at  the  head  of 
a  powerful  army,  killed  many  Toltecs,  and  allied  him- 
self by  marriage  with  Vemac,  who  was  the  temporal 
lord  of  the  Toltecs.  These  particulars  leave  hardly 
any  doubt  as  to  the  manner  in  which  Quetzalcoatl's 
beneficent  religion  was  subverted.  As  Christianity  was 
almost  destroyed  in  Europe  during  the  iifth  century 
by  hosts  of  bloodthirsty  barbarians,  so  was  the  doctrine 
of  peace  overwhelmed  in  Mexico  by  the  fierce  Chichi- 
mecs,  who  put  an  end  to  both  the  religion  and  the 
dominion  of  the  Toltecan  empire. 

The  Chichimecs  adopted,  however,  as  afterwards  did 
the  Aztecs,  a  considerable  portion  of  the  Toltecan  civil- 
ization, and  lived  under  a  system  of  religious  dualism, 
like  their  Asiatic  relatives,  who  also  worshipped  idols 
and  ate  the  flesh  of  human  victims,  while  they  pre- 
served some  vestiges  of  evangelical  doctrine.^ 

'  Cooley,  Histoire  G^n^rale,  t.  i.  p.  319 ;  Maffei,  lib.  i.  p.  37. 


-y? 


«.H 


Lii' 


'^^^   ^l 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

\  QUETZALCOATL's   return   to   AMERICA. 

The  signal  benefits,  material  and  social,  derived 
from  the  white  apostle's  doctrine  sufficiently  account 
for  its  partial  preservation  among  the  Mexican  and 
Central  American  peoples;  but  we  venture  to  think 
that  the  deep  impression  made  upon  the  people  by  the 
parting  words  of  Quetzalcoatl  acted  also  as  a  powerful 
preservative  of  his  other  teachings ;  for  these  words, 
never  forgotten  nor  misunderstood,  continued  to  inspire 
awe  and  fear  until  they  were  eventually  accomplished. 

We  learn  from  Duran^  that  when  Topiltzin  or 
Quetzalcoatl  had  resolved  to  leave  the  city  of  Tulla 
he  called  a  meeting  of  all  the  inhabitants  and  foretold 
to  them  the  arrival  of  a  foreign  nation,  that  would 
come  from  the  East  and  land  in  their  country.  These 
strangers  would  wear  outlandish  garbs  of  various  colors, 
be  dressed  from  head  to  foot,  and  even  have  a  cover  on 
their  heads.  They  would  be  sent  by  God  to  punish 
them  for  the  ill-treatment  and  affront  afflicted  upon 
him  by  expelling  him  from  their  city.  Then  great 
and  small  would  perish,  no  one  being  able  to  escape 
the  hands  of  those,  his  children.  He  told  them  further 
that  neither  they  nor  their  children  nor  grandchildren 
would  see  the  advent  of  those  nations,  which  would 
arrive,  he  said,  at  the  time  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  gener- 
ation, and  would  become  their  masters  and  maltreat 
them  and  cast  them  out  of  their  land,  even  so  as  they 


T.  ii.  p.  75. 


ilm 


667 


\ 


568 


HIHTOUY  OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


1 


now  treated  him.  Hwirinp;  all  this,  tliey  at  once 
recorded  in  their  picture-writing  the  prophecy  which 
the  papa  had  made  to  them,  in  order  that  its  memory 
should  never  be  lost,  but  that  they  might  wait  to  see 
its  fulfilment, — as  they  saw  it  in  the  Spaniard's  arrival, 
says  Duran. 

Quetzalcoatl  had  no  time  to  call  together  the  people 
of  Cholula  in  his  hurried  flight  from  the  army  of 
Tezcatlipoca,  but  when  he  was  safe  in  the  distant 
province  of  Goatzacoalco,  he  sent  back  his  four  youth- 
ful companions  to  go  and  announce  to  their  country- 
men that  most  certainly,  at  some  future  time,  there 
would  arrive  among  them,  from  regions  where  the  sun 
rises,  across  the  sea,  and  guided  by  the  stars,  white 
men  with  full  beards  like  himself,  who  would  sub- 
jugate their  land ;  and  that  those  foreigners  were  his 
brethren.^ 

"  Wherever  he  left,"  Sahagun  says,'*  "  Quetzalcoatl 
told,  as  his  last  words,  that  others  of  his  brethren  or  of 
his  religion  would  come  to  teach  and  to  rule  them ; 
and  he  indicated  to  them  several  signs  of  the  ap- 
proaching event ;  all  of  which,"  he  adds,  "  were  realized 
at  the  advent  of  the  Spaniards."  ^ 

The  Mexican  Indians,  down  to  the  last  day  of  their 
empire,  had  no  doubt  regarding  the  necessary  accom- 
plishment of  Quetzalcoatl's  prophecy,  and,  therefore, 
they  religiously  kept  his  image  or  statue — an  ugly, 
rude  carving  with  a  large,  full-bearded  head — in  a 
reclining  position  and  covered  with  blankets,  to  signify 
that  the  god  was  yet  asleep  in  the  far-off  East,  but 
would  get  on  his  feet  again  and  return  to  assume  once 


*  B.  de  las  Casaa,  p.  449,  t.  Ixvi. 
of  Coleccion  de  Documentos  ;  Ban- 
croft, vol.  iii.  pp.  251,  259. 

'  T.  i.  p.  xii,  Remarks  of  Dr.  de 
Mier. 


'  Cf.  M^nioires  des  Antiquairee 
du  Nord,  1840-1844,  p.  9  ;  Gleeson, 
vol.  i.  p.  184,  and  Aa.  passim. 


m 


QUETZALCOATL  8  RETURN  TO  AMERICA. 


669 


more  the  government  of  Mexico,*  and  would  l)ring 
back  with  him  the  goklen  age  of  abunthmce  and  peace. 

This  i)r()j)liecy  was  so  common  among  the  people 
that  they  even  applied  it  to  other  personages.  Thus 
is  it  related  of  the  Colhuas  that  on  one  occasion,  when 
a  movable  feast  in  honor  of  Tezcatlipoca  chanced  to 
fall  upon  the  day  fixed  for  the  celebration  of  Huitzilo- 
pochtli,  they  postponed  the  former,  and  thereby  so 
offended  Quetzalcoatl's  ancient  enemy  that  he  also 
predicted  the  destruction  of  the  monarcliy  and  the 
subjugation  of  the  people  by  a  strange  nation,  which 
would  introduce  a  monotheistic  worship.^  Thus,  also, 
is  it  said  that  Acxitl  Toj)iltzin,  the  last  of  the  Toltec 
kings,  after  his  defeat  by  the  Chichimecs,  made  use  of 
these  words  in  his  farewell  to  his  friends :  **  I  have 
retired  toward  the  East,  but  I  will  return,  after  five 
hundred  and  twelve  years,  to  avenge  myself  on  the 
descendants  of  my  enemies."  ^ 

The  year  "  Ce  Acatl"  had  been  set  by  the  departing 
apostle  as  the  date  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  pre- 
dictions, which,  furthermore,  would  in  time  be  clearly 
foreboded  through  certain  extraordinary  and  wondrous 
events.* 

The  universal  belief  in  the  return  of  Quetzalcoatl, 
or  rather  of  a  white,  bearded  nation  from  across  the 
eastern  ocean,  wasatterwftfds-coiiBldiirably  sLrenglhened 
by  another  mysterietts  prophet.  fta,hagun  °  «"d  Tor- 
quemada "  relate  almost  with  the  same  words  that  when 


'  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  S.  487,  500 ; 
Short,  p.  271 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii. 
pp.  240,  260. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  ii.  p.  335),  ref.  to 
Brasseur  de  Bonrbourg,  Hist.  Nat. 
Civ.,  t.  iii.  p.  638. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  iii.  p.  279,  writes 
five  thousand  and  twelve  years ; 
but  this  appears  to  be  a  mistake. 


when  we  consider  the  common 
burthen  of  the  prophecy  and  its 
fulfilment. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  pp.  174,  seq., 
185,  ref.  to  "all  the  most  ancient 
historians,"  and  in  particular  to 
Boturini ;  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  201. 

"  T.  i.  p.  278. 

•  T.  iii.  lib.  xv.  cap.  xlix.  p.  132. 


1 

i 


570       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA   BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


(i 


*  1  i 

*li  I', 


■^) 


-f 


Francis  de  Montejo  commenced,  in  the  year  1527,  the 
conquest  of  Yucatan,  he  was  peacefully  received  in 
certain  provinces,  where  he  was  told  that,  not  long  he- 
fore,  an  Indian  high-priest,  called  Chilam-Cambal  and 
regarded  by  them  as  a  great  prophet,  had  announced 
that,  within  a  short  time,  a  bearded  white  nation  would 
arrive  from  where  the  sun  rises,  that  they  would  carry 
aloft  the  sign  of  the  cross,  which  he  showed  to  them,  and 
which,  he  said,  their  gods  could  not  resist ;  and  these 
would  take  to  flight.  He  further  announced  tliat  the 
foreigners  would  subdue  the  natives,  who  were  to  aban- 
don their  idols  and  to  worship  one  God.  And  the 
prophet  ordered  stone  crosses  to  be  made  and  placed 
in  the  temple-courts,  saying  that  the  cross  was  the 
true  tree  of  the  world ;  and  this  being  a  thing  new  to 
them,  many  people  went  to  look  at  those  crosses  and 
venerated  them  ever  since.  This  was  the  cause,  the 
two  ancient  historians  add,  why  the  Indians  asked 
Fernando  de  Cordova  whether  he  had  come  from  where 
the  sun  was  born ;  and  why,  when  they  saw  Montejo 
and  his  soldiers  pay  so  nmch  respect  to  the  cross,  they 
were  convinced  that  their  prophet  Chilam-Cambal  had 
told  them  the  truth. 

It  is  the  place  here  to  mention  an  analogous  tradition 
of  the  Matlaltzincas  of  Michoacan.  Bancroft  says^ 
that  they  reverenced  very  highly  a  great  reformer, 
Surites,  a  high-priest  who  preached  morality  and,  in- 
spired by  a  prophetic  spirit,  is  said  to  have  prepared 
the  people  for  a  better  faith  which  was  to  come  from 
the  direction  of  the  rising  sun.  The  festivals  of  the 
Peranscuaro,  which  corresponded  to  our  Christmas,  and 
of  the  Zitacuarencuaro  or  Resurrection,  were  instituted 
by  Surites.     Finally,  if  we  can  rely  on  an  authenticated 

'  Vol.  iii.  p.  44(5. 


•i'saiiS^0fVHIf 


K^' 


QUETZALCOATL  a   RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


571 


document  of  the  conqueror  of  Mexico,  the  prophecy 
of  Quetzalcoatl  was  renewed  before  the  Aztec  emperor, 
in  the  year  1384,  by  another  bearded  white  missionary, 
who  preached  the  same  pure  and  sahitary  doctrine  as 
his  ilhistrious  predecessor.^ 

As  the  time  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  great  prophecy 
was  drawing  nearer,  the  signs  of  the  actual  accomplish- 
ment appeared  one  after  another,  wonderful  and  dread- 
ful for  those  pagan,  corrupt,  and  credulous  people.  We 
nuist  not  speak  of  the  earthquake  that  destroyed  the 
pyramid  of  Cholula,  only  a  few  days  after  Quetzalcoatl's 
departure,  and  was  for  the  people  a  sufficient  voucher 
of  the  truth  of  his  predictions.^  But  in  the  year  1510 
the  great  lake  of  Tezcuco,  without  the  occurrence  of  a 
tempest  or  earthquake,  or  any  other  visible  cause,  be- 
came violently  agitated,  overflowed  its  banks,  and, 
pouring  into  the  streets  of  Mexico  swept  away  many 
of  the  buildings  in  the  fury  of  its  waters.  In  1511 
one  of  the  turrets  of  the  great  temple  took  fire,  like- 
wise without  any  apparent  cause,  and  continued  to 
burn  in  defiance  of  all  attempts  to  save  it.  In  the  fol- 
lowing years  three  comets  were  s^en,  and  not  long  be- 
fore the  coming  of  the  Spaniards  a  strange  light  broke 
forth  in  the  East.  It  spread  broad  at  its  base  on  the 
horizon,  and,  rising  in  a  pyramidal  form,  tapered  off  as 
it  approached  the  zenith.  It  resembled  a  vast  sheet  or 
flood  of  fire  emitting  sparks,  or,  as  an  old  writer  ex- 
presses it,  "  seemed  thickly  powdered  with  stars."  At 
the  same  time  low  voices  were  heard  in  the  air,  and 
doleful  wailings,  as  if  to  announce  some  strange,  mys- 
terious calamity.  These  portentous  phenomena  took 
place  every  night  for  the  space  of  a  whole  year.' 


*    . 

:  i 


«i1 


>  See  Document  XVI. 
'  Bancroft,  vol.  v,  p.  201. 


'  Prescott,  Conquefit  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  '.Mi ;  GleeBon,  vol.  i.  pp. 
175,  186. 


rl^ 


1  ' 


572       HISTORY    OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

The  day  of  Quetzalcoatl's  return  was  looked  forward 
to  with  hope  or  with  apprehension,  according  to  the 
interest  of  the  believers,  but  with  general  confidence 
throughout  the  wide  borders  of  Anahuac.  Montezuma 
was  convinced,  in  accordance  with  the  assertions  of  his 
prophets  and  augurs,  that  his  estate  and  riches  were  to 
perish  within  a  few  years  at  the  hands  of  certain  nations 
that  would  come  during  his  lifetime  and  destroy  his 
happiness.  He,  therefore,  lived  in  constant  fear,  sad- 
ness, and  anxiety.^  Terrified  at  the  apparitions  in  the 
heavens,  he  took  counsel  of  Nezahualpilli,  king  of 
Tezcuco,  who  was  a  great  proficient  in  the  subtle 
science  of  astrology.  But  the  royal  sage  cast  a  deeper 
cloud  over  his  spirit  by  reading  in  these  portents  the 
impending  downfall  of  the  empire.'^  Other  alarming 
prodigies  had  taken  place  at  the  birth  of  Ixtlilxochitl, 
a  son  of  Nezahualpilli ;  and  these,  together  with  the 
gloomy  aspect  of  the  planets,  led  the  astrologers,  who 
cast  the  infant's  horoscope,  to  advise  the  king  to  take 
the  life  of  his  child,  because,  they  said,  if  he  lived  to 
grow  up,  he  was  destined  to  unite  with  the  enemies  of 
his  country  and  overturn  its  institutions  and  religion. 
The  father  answered  that  it  was  useless  to  take  measures 
against  the  decrees  of  the  God  Creator  of  all  things  ;  that 
it  was  not  devoid  of  mystery  and  according  to  the  God's 
secret  judgments,  if  He  should  give  him  such  a  son  at 
the  very  time  when  the  prophecies  of  the  ancestors  were 
nearing  their  accomplishment,  when  new  nations  were 
to  come  to  take  possession  of  the  land, — namely,  the 
children  of  Quetzalcoatl,  whose  arrival  from  eastern 


^  Las  Casaa,  MS.,  lib.  iii.  cap.  120, 
ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  309,  n.  8. 

*  Saha^in,  Hist,  de  Nueva  Es- 
pafia,  MS.,  lib.  xii.  cap.  i.  ;  Ca- 
luargo.    Hist,    de    Tlaacala,   MS.  ; 


Acosta,  bk.  vii.  oh.  xxiii.  ;  Her- 
rera.  Hist.  Gener.,  dec.  ii.  lib.  v. 
cap.  V.  ;  Ixtlilxochitl,  Hist.  Chicli., 
MS.,  cap.  Ixxiv.,  ap.  Prescott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  i.  p.  309. 


igggggggaBUait. 


QUETZALCOATL  S    RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


573 


parts  was  now  expected.^  It  is  related  that  the  em- 
peror, in  the  year  1517,  in  his  zeal  to  appease  the  irate 
deities,  ordered  the  temple  of  Huitzilopochtli  to  be  cov- 
ered from  top  to  bottom  with  gold,  precious  stones,  and 
rare  feathers.  His  minister  of  finance,  ordered  to 
supply  the  cost  of  this  extravagant  act  of  piety  by  im- 
posing a  new  tax  on  the  people,  objected,  but  his  objec- 
tions were  removed  by  puttinghiuutodeath. 

News  had  come  tjjat-^ghtful  foreign  ships  had 
touched  the  coast  'of  Yucatan ;  and  to  prevent  the 
danger  Montezuma  had,  in  the  year  1518,  ordered  the 
last  of  the  long  series  of  sacrificial  immolations  on  a 
large  scale.  But  almost  before  the  groans  of  the  dying 
victims  had  died  away  there  came  to  the  ears  of  the 
Aztec  sovereign  the  startling  tidings  that  the  eastern 
strangers  had  again  made  their  appearance,  this  time 
on  the  Totonac  coasts  of  his  own  empire.  In  fact,  John 
de  Grijalva  and  his  companions  had  followed  the  Gulf 
coast  northward  and  reached  the  spot  where  now  stands 
the  city  of  Vera  Cruz.'* 

Not  only  the  Mexican  suzerain,  but  also  his  feudal 
kings  and  lords  were  terrified.  The  appearance  of  the 
Spaniards  on  the  American  coasts,  the  predictions  of 
disaster  which  all  the  soothsayers  agreed  in  deriving 
from  constantly  recurring  omens,  the  approaching  sub- 
jugation of  his  people  to  a  race  of  foreigners,  in  which 
Nezahualpilli  firmly  believed,  had  a  most  depressing 
effect  on  the  Tezcucan  king.  He  withdrew  with  his 
favorite  wife  and  a  few  attendants  to  the  palace  of  Tez- 
cotzinco,  announcing  his  intention  of  spending  his  re- 
maining days  in  solitude ;  but  six  months  later  he 
returned  to  Tezcuco,  retired  to  his  most  private  apart- 


'  Ixtlilxochitl,  Hist.  Chich.,  MS., 
cap.  Ixix.,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest 
of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p454,  n.  33.    . 


Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  478. 


; -M 


m 


!i 


574       HISTORY   OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 

merits,  and  refused  to  see  any  visitors.  Some  time 
afterwards,  when  his  family  insisted  on  being  admitted 
to  his  presence,  his  death  was  announced.^ 

In  the  mean  time  measures  had  been  taken  to  pre- 
vent, if  possible,  the  impending  calamity.  All  Aztec 
officials  in  the  coast  provinces  had  strict  orders  to  keep 
a  constant  lookout  for  the  eastern  strangers,  and,  in 
case  of  their  arrival,  to  treat  them  kindly  ;  but  by  pre- 
tence of  traffic  and  by  every  possible  means  to  ascer- 
tain who  they  were,  whence  they  came,  and  what  was 
the  nature  of  their  designs.  In  accordance  with  these 
orders,  Pinotl,  the  Aztec  governor  of  Cuetlachtlan,  and 
his  Mexican  subordinates  were  foremost  among  the 
visitors  to  the  wonderful  ships  of  Grijalva.  Paintings 
were  quickly  yet  carefully  prepared  of  the  strangers, 
their  ships,  their  weapons,  and  of  every  strange  thing 
observed,  and  with  the  startling  news  and  the  pictured 
records  the  royal  officials  hastened  to  Mexico  and  com- 
municated their  information  to  Montezuma.  The  em- 
peror, concealing  as  well  as  possible  his  anxiety,  and 
forbidding  the  messengers  to  make  the  news  public, 
immediately  assembled  his  royal  colleagues  and  his 
council  of  state,  laid  the  matter  before  them,  and 
asked  their  advice.  The  opinion  was  unanimous  that 
the  strangers  were  the  children  of  Quetzalcoatl  return- 
ing in  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  prophecies,  and  that 
they  should  be  kindly  received,  kindness  towaiciS  them 
being  the  only  means  of  conciliating  the  good  will  of 
the  numerous  Mexican  followers,  even  that  late,  of  the 
ancient  prophet.  An  embassy  was  sent  with  rich  pres- 
ents to  the  coast,  but  it  was  of  no  avail ;  the  Spaniards 
had  departed,  with  a  promise  or  a  threat,  rather,  of 
returning  at  an  early  date. 

'  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  473. 


nBBHrl 


111 


QUETZALCOATL  S    RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


575 


The  events  that  followed,  down  to  the  fulfilment  of 
that  promise  through  the  arrival  of  Fernando  Cortes,  in 
the  year  1519,  are  not  very  definitely  recorded ;  but  the 
next  months  formed  a  period  of  the  greatest  anxiety 
for  the  Aztec  rulers,  and  of  mingled  dread  and  hope  for 
their  numerous  enemies.  Interest  in  the  one  absorbing 
topic  caused  all  else  to  be  forgotten.  There  was  not,  as 
before,  any  thought  of  conquest,  of  revolt,  of  tribute. 
Even  the  bloody  rites  of  Huitzilopochtli  were  much 
neglected,  and  the  star  of  the  peaceful  Quetzalcoatl  and 
of  his  sect  was  in  the  ascendant.  Prophets  and  old  men 
throughout  the  country  were  closely  questioned  re- 
specting their  knowledge  of  the  ancient  traditions ;  old 
paintings  and  records  were  taken  from  every  archive 
and  carefully  compared  with  those  relating  to  the  new- 
comers. The  loss  of  the  precious  documents  burned 
by  Itzcoatl  was  now  seriously  felt ;  the  glass  beads  and 
other  trinkets  obtained  from  the  Spaniards,  and  even 
carefully  treasured  fragments  of  ship-biscuits,  were  for- 
mally deposited,  with  all  the  old  Toltec  ceremonies,  in 
the  temple  of  Quetzalcoatl.^ 

Such  was  in  Mexico  tlt(3  anxious  expectation  of  its 
instant  religious  and  social  ruin,  while  the  return  of 
Cukulcan  and  the  restoration  of  his  peaceful  and  chari- 
table doctrine  were  looked  for  with  joy  by  the  greater 
number  of  its  southern  tributaries,  who  afterwards  wil- 
lingly submitted  to  the  authority  of  the  Spanish  gen- 
erals. In  a  few  districts,  however,  the  white,  bearded 
people  arrived  a  few  years  before  the  date  set  by 
Chilam-Cambal,  as  we  may  notice  from  the  answer  of 
Canec  of  Peten  to  the  Christian  missionary, — namely, 
that,  although  his  father  had  promised  to  embrace 
Christianity,  he  would  postpone  his  conversion  for  a 

*  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  479. 


I 


576       HISTORY    OF    AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


liH 


i!  III. 


while  longer,  because  the  cross  was  announced  to  re- 
turn in  the  thirteenth  space  of  time,  whereas  this  was 
only  the  third.^ 

The  Peruvian  king,  Huayna  Capae,  who  had  un- 
doubtedly heard  of  the  expedition  of  Pizarro  and  Al- 
raagro  as  far  as  the  Rio  de  San  Juan,  intimated  his 
apprehension  that  they  would  return,  and  that  some 
day,  not  far  distant  perhaps,  the  throne  of  the  Incas 
might  be  shaken  by  these  strangers.'^  Other  accounts, 
which  had  obtained  a  popular  currency,  not  content 
with  this,  connect  the  first  tidings  of  the  white  men  in 
Peru  with  predictions  long  extant  in  the  country,  and 
with  supernatural  apparitions  which  filled  the  hearts  of 
the  whole  nation  with  dismay.  Comets  were  seen 
flaming  athwart  the  heavens,  earthquakes  shook  the 
land,  the  moon  was  girdled  with  rings  of  fire  of  many 
colors,  a  thunderbolt  fell  on  one  of  the  royal  palaces 
and  consumed  it  to  ashes,  and  an  eagle  chased  by  sev- 
eral hawks  was  seen,  screaming  in  the  air,  to  hover 
above  the  great  square  of  Cuzco,  when,  pierced  by  the 
talons  of  its  tormentors,  the  king  of  birds  fell  lifeless  in 
the  presence  of  many  of  the  Inca  nobles,  who  read  in 
this  event  an  augury  of  their  own  destruction.  Huayna 
Capac  himself,  calling  his  great  officers  around  him,  as 
he  found  he  was  drawing  near  his  end,  announced  the 
subversion  of  his  empire  by  the  race  of  white  and 
bearded  strangers,  as  the  consummation  predicted  by 
the  oracles  after  the  reign  of  the  twelfth  Inca,  and  he 
enjoined  it  on  his  vassals  not  to  resist  the  decrees  of 
Heaven,  but  to  yield  obedience  to  its  messengers.^ 

Nor  was  it  only  in  every  kingdom  of  Central  Amer- 

*  Bastian,  Bd.  ii.  8.  371.  '  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  vol. 

'Sarmiento,  Relacion,  MS.,  cap.  i.   p.  334,  ref.  to  Garcilasso  de  la 

Ixv.,    ap.     Prescott,    Conquest    of  V'^ega,  Comentarios,  parte  i.  lib.  ix. 

Peru,  vol.  i.  p.  334.  cap.  xiv. 


QUETZALCOATL  S   RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


577 


ica  and  of  Peru  that  this  expectation  existed  at  that 
time,  but  even  the  Haytians  had  a  presentiment  of  the 
destruction  of  their  idolatrous  religion,  according  to 
what  they  had  learned,  they  said,  from  their  own  gods.^ 
Nay,  all  over  the  Antilles  the  discoverers  were  received 
as  a  holy  race,  as  expected  gods.  Too  late  the  Indians 
knew  that  the  Spanish  convicts  were  not  even  saints.^ 

No  wonder,  says  Short,^  when  the  fleet  of  Cortes 
hove  in  sight  on  the  horizon,  almost  in  the  same  place 
where  Quetzalcoatl  had  disappeared,  that  the  Mexicans, 
who  had  been  waiting  for  centuries  for  the  prince  of 
peace  to  return,  believed  their  waiting  to  be  at  an  end. 
The  coast  natives  sprang  immediately  to  their  canoes 
and  commenced  to  row  towards  the  vessels,  and,  as  they 
arrived  near  the  ships  and  saw  the  Spaniards,  they 
kissed  the  prows  of  their  crafts  in  sign  of  adoration.* 
When  Cortes  landed  they  sacrificed  a  man  to  him,  and 
sprinkled  him  and  his  companions  with  the  blood  of 
the  wretched  victim.^ 

The  news  of  the  conqueror's  landing,  together  with 
the  pictures  of  his  ships,  horses,  and  other  wonderftil 
equipments,  was  carried  to  the  city  of  Tenochtitlan 
with  the  swiftness  of  an  arrow.  Montezuma,  with 
trembling  hand,  compared  the  fresh  writing  with  his 
ancient  records,  convened  his  council  of  state,  asking 
especially  the  advice  of  the  wise  king  of  Tezcuco.  The 
more  they  considered  the  matter  the  better  they  were 
convinced  that  Quetzalcoatl  had  actually  returned  to 
resume  his  ancient  rule  over  the  land.  They  concluded 
that  the  best  policy  to  follow  was  that  of  gaining  his 


M 


r  i 


^  Goinara,  cap.  xxxii.  fo.  30  "°. 

'  Dr.  de  Mier,  ap.  Sahagun,  t.  i. 
p.  iv. 

»P.  271. 

*  Gleeson,  vol.  i.  p.  184,  quoting 
Sahagiin. 

I.— 37 


*  Short,  p.  271 ;  Bancroft,  vol.  iii. 
p.  276  ;  cf.  Duran,  Apend.,  p.  ult.  ; 
Las  Caeas,  p.  449,  t.  Ixvi.,  Coleccion 
de  Documentos. 


578       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA    BEFORE   COLUMBUS. 


I  ipn 


good  will  by  sending  him  the  richest  presents  of  jewels, 
gold,  featherwork,  and  precious  stones  ;  and  yet  of  keep- 
ing hira  away  by  saying  that  the  emperor  did  not  wish 
to  see  him,  but  kindly  requested  him  to  return  from 
whence  he  had  come.^ 

While  the  Spaniards  were  occupied  with  their  new 
settlement  of  Villa  Rica,  they  were  surprised  by  the 
presence  of  an  embassy  from  Mexico.  The  envoys,  on 
coming  before  Cortes,  presented  him  with  the  rich  gifts 
of  their  master,  who  had  no  doubt,  they  said,  but  Cortes 
and  his  companions  were  the  strangers  whose  arrival 
had  so  long  been  announced  by  their  oracles.  They 
desired,  however,  that  he  should  not  proceed  on  his 
intended  visit  to  the  Mexican  capital.* 

Cortfe  accepted  the  presents,  but  did  not  grant  the 
petition.  A  few  weeks  later,  when  the  conqueror  had 
demanded  a  passage  through  the  territories  of  the  Tlas- 
calan  republic,  their  great  council  was  convened,  and 
a  considerable  difference  of  opinion  prevailed  among 
its  members.  Some  advised  conciliatory  measures, 
"  because  we  know,"  they  said,  "  from  our  ancestors, 
that  a  nation  is  to  come  from  the  regions  where  the 
sun  rises,  to  intermarry  with  us,  and  we  are  to  form 
one  nation  with  them,  and  they  are  foretold  to  be  white 
and  bearded  men."  *  Others,  among  whom  was  the 
courageous  general,  Xicotencatl,  were  in  favor  of  re- 
fusal and  armed  opposition.  The  latter  opinion  pre- 
vailed ;  but  after  the  armies  of  the  Tlascalan  republic 
had  been  repeatedly  defeated  by  the  Spanish  invaders, 
their  general,  Xicotencatl,  in  tendering  his  submission, 
also  admitted  that  his  victors  might  be  the  strangers 
who,  it  had  been  so  long  predicted,  would  come  from 


'  Duran,  t.  ii.  p.  78. 
*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  348. 


'  Camargo,  Hist,  de  Tlaxcala,  ap. 
Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 
i.  p.  412,  n.  15. 


QUETZALCOATL  S   RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


579 


'i!fi: 


the  East  to  take  possession  of  the  country,  and  he 
begged  them  to  use  their  triumph  with  moderation/ 

The  faith  in  Quetzaleoatl's  return,  which  Cort^  was 
careful  enough  not  to  contradict,  not  only  opened  to 
him  the  way  to  make  Montezuma  his  unwelcome  visit, 
but  was  also  the  principal  cause  of  all  his  brilliant 
success.  The  reader  has  noticed  the  contentions  of 
earlier  times  in  Tollan  and  Cholula  between  Tezcat- 
lipoca  and  Quetzalcoatl.  With  the  growth  of  the 
Mexican  influence,  the  bloody  rites  favored  by  Tezcat- 
lipoca  had  prevailed  under  the  auspices  of  the  san- 
guinary Aztec  god,  Huitzilopochtli,  and  the  worship 
of  the  gentle  Quetzalcoatl,  though  still  observed  in 
many  provinces  and  many  temples,  had,  with  its  priests, 
been  forced  to  take  a  secondary  rank.  But  the  people 
were  filled  with  terror  at  the  horrible  extent  to  which 
the  later  kings  had  carried  the  immolation  of  human 
victims ;  they  were  sick  of  blood  and  of  divinities  that 
thirsted  after  it.  A  reaction  was  experienced  in  favor 
of  the  rival  deity  and  priesthood.  And  now,  just  as 
the  oppressed  subjects  of  idolatrous  tyranny  were 
learning  to  remember  with  regret  the  gentle  teach- 
ings of  Quetzalcoatl,  and  to  look  to  that  god  for  relief 
from  their  woes,  their  prayers  were  answered,  the  god's 
predictions  were  apparently  fulfilled,  and  his  promised 
brethren,  if  not  himself,  made  their  appearance  on  the 
eastern  ocean.  "  The  arrival  of  Cortes  was,  in  one 
sense,"  says  Bancroft,  and  we  add,  was  in  every  sense, 
"  most  marvellous  ;"  ^  most  marvellous,  indeed  I 

When,   on   his    second   expedition  against  Mexico, 


*  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  i.  p.  455. 

"  Bancroft,  vol.  v.  p.  482.  His 
slur  cast  upon  the  clergy  that  con- 
tinued Quetzaleoatl's  beneficent 
doctrine    could    not    lessen     the 


aatonishment  caused  to  the  infidel 
writer  by  the  accomplishment  of 
the  prophecy,  in  conjunction  with 
the  peculiar  preparatory  circiuii- 
stances  of  the  country's  jwlitical 
condition. 


'  ■  J 


i'l 


I    I   " 


l!':  I 


M 


j 

.' 

I'--    ^ 

■ 

|i-: 

I 

^iT  ' 

fill 

' 

1 14;:' 

i| 

m 

■^ 

580       HISTORY   OF   AMERICA   BEFORE  COLUMBUS. 

Cort<?8  had  occupied  Tezcuco  once  more,  the  rulers  of 
Chalco,  another  important  city  situated  on  the  eastern 
extremity  of  the  lake  of  that  name,  sent  a  message  to 
the  captain-general,  proposing  to  put  themselves  under 
his  protection  and  command  if  he  would  enable  them 
to  expel  the  Aztec  garrison.  Cortes  acquiesced  in  their 
petition,  and  his  lieutenant  Sandoval  soon  returned  to 
Tezcuco,  accompanied  by  the  two  young  lords  of  the 
city,  sons  of  the  late  cacique.  These  informed  the 
conqueror  that  their  father  had  died,  full  of  years,  a 
short  time  before.  With  his  last  breath  he  had  ex- 
pressed his  regret  that  he  should  not  have  lived  to  see 
Malinche,  as  Cortes  was  called  by  them.  He  had 
believed  that  the  white  men  were  the  beings  predicted 
by  the  oracles  as  one  day  to  come  from  the  East  and 
take  possession  of  the  land,^  and  had  enjoined  on  his 
children,  should  the  strangers  return  to  the  valley,  to 
tender  them  their  homage  and  allegiance.  Cortes  re- 
ceived a  similar  application  from  various  other  towns 
that  were  disposed,  could  they  do  so  with  safety,  to 
throw  off  the  Mexican  yoke.*^ 

Religion  and  politics  combined  to  turn  the  natives 
against  their  country's  acknowledged  master,  in  favor 
of  a  foreign  invader  with  a  handful  of  soldiers ;  but 
religion  alone  directed  the  powerful  master  himself  to 
resign  his  crown  and  promise,  allegiance  to  an  ultra- 
marine potentate,  Charles  V.,  simply  because  the  Span- 
ish king  was,  in  his  persuasion,  the  representative  of  a 
religious  teacher  who  had,  in  times  gone  by,  done  so 
much  good  to  his  country  and  had — explain  who  can 

^"Porqne  ciertamente  sub  ante-  nosotros."   (Bernal  Diaz,  Hist,  de 

passadoB  les  avian  dicho,  que  avian  la   Conquieta,    cap.    cxxxix.,    ap. 

de  sefiorear  aquellae  tierras  hom-  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico,  vol. 

bres    que  vernian  con    barbae  de  iii.  p.  13,  n.  11.) 
hazia  donde  sale  el  Sol,  y  que  por        ^  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 

lae    cosas  que   ban  visto,  eramos  vol.  iii.  pp.  11-13. 


QUETZALCOATL  .S    RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


681 


— announced  the  arrival  of  his  co-religionists  at  a  time 
which  was,  from  all  indications,  universally  believed  to 
be  the  time  of  Montezuma  himself/ 

When  receiving  the  first  visit  of  Cortes,  Montezuma 
told  him  that  his  ancestors  were  not  the  original  pro- 
prietors of  the  land.  They  had  occupied  it  but  a  few 
ages,  he  said,  and  had  been  led  there  by  a  great  being, 
who,  after  giving  them  laws  and  ruling  over  the  nation 
for  a  time,  had  withdrawn  to  the  regions  where  the  sun 
rises.  He  had  declared,  on  his  departure,  that  he  or 
his  descendants  would  again  visit  them  and  resume  his 
empire.  The  wonderful  deeds  of  the  Spaniards,  their 
fair  complexions,  and  the  quarter  whence  they  came, 
all  showed  that  they  were  his  descendants.'* 

The  rumor  of  Montezuma's  submission  to  the  king 
of  Spain  was  soon  circulated  through  the  capital  and 
the  country.  Men  read  in  it  the  decrees  of  Providence. 
The  ancient  tradition  of  Quetzalcoatl  was  familiar  to 
all ;  and  where  it  had  slept,  scarcely  noticed,  in  the 
memory,  it  was  now  revived  with  many  exaggerated 
details.  It  was  said  to  be  part  of  the  tradition  that 
the  royal  line  of  the  Aztecs  was  to  end  with  Monte- 
zuma, and  his  name,  the  literal  signification  of  which 
is  "  sad,"  or  "  angry  lord,"  was  construed  into  an  omen 
of  his  evil  destiny.^  '    ' 


'  Sahagun,  t.  i.  p.  v.  Cortes 
wrote  to  Charles  V.  that  he  had 
succeeded  with  Montezuma,  "es- 
pecialmeiite  en  hacelle  creer  que 
V.  M.  era  a  quien  ellos  esperaban. 
Engafiado  asi  Monteuhsoma  junto 
los  reyes  y  sefiores  de  su  imperio, 
y  arengandoles  con  la  misma  tra- 
dicion  que  sabian,  y  estaba  escrita 
en  sus  monuinentos,  se  reconocio 
per  feudatario  del  supuesto  Quet- 
zalcohuatl."  (Cf.  Prescott,  Con- 
quest of  Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p.  190. ) 


'  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico, 
vol.  ii.  p.  86,  ref.  to  Relacion  Se- 
greda  de  Cortez  :  "  E  siempre  hemoa 
tenido,  que  de  los  que  de  61  de- 
scendiessen  habian  de  venir  li  so- 
juzgar  esta  tierra,  y  d  nosotros 
coiuo  II  sus  vasallos." 

'  Gomara,  Cionica,  cap.  xcii.  ; 
Clavigero,  Storia  del  Messico,  t.  ii. 
p.  2.56,  ap.  Prescott,  Conquest  of 
Mexico,  vol.  ii.  p.  193. 


il 


fw  I 


i  I 


}  MM 


682     iiisToiiy  OF  America  before  columbus. 

I  eoiu'liule  my  account  of  the  tradition  common  to 
all  civilized  and  to  a  few  barbarous  nations  of  America 
by  mentioning  a  curious  remark  of  the  learned  Bas- 
tian,' — namely,  that  the  Peruvian  king  Atahuall[)a 
recognized  De  Soto  and  the  Spanish  companions  of 
Fernando  Pizarro,  whose  coming  had  been  predicted 
by  the  god  Viracocha,  from  the  stone  statues  erected  in 
ancient  times  by  Yahuar-Capac. 

It  might  be  expected  from  us  that,  before  finishing 
this  chapter,  we  would  draw  some  general  inferences 
from  the  numerous  facts  related.  We  trust  that  no 
intelligent  reader  would  contradict  us,  if  we  should 
consider  it  sufficiently  demonstrated  that  the  Christian 
religion  was  preached  in  America  during  the  first 
centuries  of  our  era ;  that  Quetzalcoatl  was  a  Christian 
prelate  who  landed  in  America,  accompanied  hj  several 
inferior  missionaries  and  a  number  of  people  from 
some  part  of  Christian  Europe,  and  that  he  established 
a  settlement  in  the  territories  of  the  Mexican  empire 
or,  perhaps,  on  the  eastern  coasts  of  our  United  States, 
from  whence  they  eventually  extended  their  race  and 
religion  along  the  Mexican  Gulf.  We  might  find,  in  the 
facts  above  reported,  sufficient  ground  for  a  reasonable 
doubt  whether  the  true  omniscient  God  was  not  the 
author  of  Quetzalcoatl's  prophecy  and  of  its  punctual 
accomplishment ;  but  we  have  no  intention  to  write  a 
philosophy  of  ancient  American  history,  and  we  re- 
strict ourselves  within  the  bounds  of  history  itself, 
simply  relating  past  events  as  we  may  have  succeeded 
in  learning  them.  We  shall,  therefore,  be  satisfied  if 
the  reader  will  grant  u&  leave  to  draw  from  the  fore- 
going pages  but  one  conclusion,  which  to  our  under- 
standing seems  to  be  indisputable, — namely,  that  some 


»  Bd.  ii.  S.  126. 


QUETZALCOATL8    RETURN   TO   AMERICA. 


583 


European  inmiignint«  liave  introcluced  into  America 
the  Christian  doctrines,  syniboln,  and  practices,  of 
which  such  unmistakable  evidence  has  been  found  by 
the  discoverers  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries. 

All  other  deductions,  which  may  easily  be  arrived 
at,  we  leave  to  the  intelligence  of  our  readers,  while 
we  take  upon  ourselves  the  further  difficult  task  of 
searching  after  the  European  nations  and  the  Christian 
apostles,  whose  acquaintance  will  solve  the  strange, 
puzzling  questions  necessarily  suggested  to  the  most 
indifterent  minds  by  the  universally  admitted  state- 
ments made  heretofore. 

Who  was  Quetzalcoatl,  and  from  what  part  of  Europe 
did  he  come  with  his  bearded  disciples  and  white 
colonists  ? 


m 

iamWi 

hHHLi 

M^i 

'?7?n^^^H 

' '  ^ '  iiiH 

1              T'^H 

APPENDIX  OF   DOCUMENTS. 


DOCUMENT  I.,  a. 

LINAPI    NATIONAL   SONGS.* 

First  Song:   The  Creation,  etc.* 

1.  At  first  there  was  nothing  but  sea-water  on  the  top  of  the 
land,  Aki. 

2.  There  was  much  water,  and  much  fog  over  the  land,  and 
there  was  also  Kitanito  'nt,  the  God-Creator. 

3.  And  this  God-Creator  was  the  first  being,  Saye-Wis,  an 
eternal  being,  and  invisible,  although  everywhere. 

4.  It  was  he  who  caused  much  water,  much  land,  much  cloud, 
much  heaven. 

5.  It  was  he  who  caused  the  sun,  the  moon,  and  tho  stars. 

6.  And  all  these  he  caused  to  move  well. 

7.  By  his  action  it  blew  hard,  it  cleared  up,  and  the  deep 
water  ran  off. 

8.  It  looked  bright,  and  islands  stood  there,  Menak. 

9.  It  was  then,  when  again  the  God-Creator  made  the  makers 
or  spirits,  Manito-Manitoak. 

10.  And  also  the  first  beings,  Owinitvak,  and  also  the  angels, 
Angelatawiwak,  and  also  the  souls,  Chichankwak :  all  them  he 
made. 

11.  And  afterwards  ho  made  the  man-being,  Jin-Wis,  ances- 
tor of  the  men. 

12.  He  gave  him  the  first  mother,  Netamigaho,  mother  of  the 
first  beings,  Owini. 

13.  And  fishes  he  gave  him,  beasts  he  gave  him,  birds  he 
gave  him. 

14.  But  there  was  a  bad  spirit,  Makimani,  who  caused  the 
bad  beings,  Makowini ;  black  snakes,  Nakoimk,  and  monsters 
or  large  reptiles,  Amangamek. 


*  C.  S.  Rafinesqne,  The  American 
Nations,  t.  i.  p.  122,  seq. 


»  Ref.  to  pp.  109,  111,  112,  190. 
686 


586 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


■ 

J 


:^  '■;;. 


15.  And  caused  uIho  flioH,  and  caused  also  gnats. 

16.  All  the  things  were  then  friends  and  stood  there. 

17.  Thou  being  Kiwin,  good  God,  Wunand ;  and  the  good 
makers  or  spii'its  were  such. 

18.  With  the  .Tins  Nijim\  the  first  men,  and  the  first  mother, 
their  wives,  which  were  Faix'ies,  Nantinewak} 

19.  The  first  food  of  the  Jine  and  Fairies  was  a  fat  fruit, 
Gattnmin. 

20.  All  were  willingly  pleased,  all  were  easy  thinking,  and 
all  were  well-happified. 

21.  But  after  a  while  a  Snake-priest,  Powako,  brings  on  earth 
secretly  the  snake-worship,  InitnJw,  of  the  god  of  the  snakes, 
Wakon. 

22.  And  there  came  wickedness,  crime,  and  unhappiness. 

23.  And  bad  weather  was  coming,  distemper  was  coming, 
with  death  was  coming. 

24.  All  this  happened  very  long  ago,  at  the  first  land  Netamaki, 
beyond  the  great  ocean,  Kitahikan. 


m 


*  I, 


DOCUMENT  I.,  b. 

Second  Song :   The  Flood,  etc.^ 

1.  There  was,  long  ago,  a  powerful  snake,  Maskanako,  when 
the  men  had  become  bad  beings,  Makowim. 

2.  This  strong  snake  had  become  the  foe  of  the  Jins,  and 
they  became  troubled,  hating  each  other. 

3.  Both  were  fighting,  both  were  spoiling,  both  were  never 
peaceful. 

4.  And  they  were  fighting,  least-man,  Ilattapeioi,  witli  dead- 
keeper,  Nihanlowit. 

5.  And  the  strong  snake  readily  resolved  to  destroy  or  fight 
the  beings  and  the  men. 

6.  The  dark  snake  he   brought,  the   monster,  Amangam  he 
brought,  snake  rushing  water  he  brought. 

7.  Much  water  is  rushing,  much  go  to  hills,  much  penetrate, 
much  desti'oying. 

8.  Meantime  at  Tula,  at  that  island,  Nanabush  (the  great 
hare  Nana)  became  the  ancestor  of  beings  and  men.' 


'  Compare  "  Jins  Nijini"  with  the 
Jins  of  China  and  Irna,  the  Jains 
of  India,  and  the  Gens  of  Rome. 


'  Ref.  to  pp.  Ill,  112,  190. 
'  Nana  appears  to  be  Noe. 


l!    ^1 


I 


DOCUMENT    I.,  C. 


587 


9.  Being  born  creeping,  he  \h  ready  to  move  and  dwell  at 
Tula.' 

10.  The  beings  and  nion  all  go  forth  from  the  flood,  creeping 
in  shallow  water,  or  swimming  afloat,  asking  which  is  the  way 
to  the  turtle-back,  Tulapin^ 

11.  But  there  were  many  monsters,  Amangamek,  in  the  way, 
and  some  men  were  devoured  by  them. 

12.  But  the  daughter  of  a  spirit  helped  them  in  a  boat,  saying: 
come,  come ;  they  were  coming  and  were  helped.' 

As  an  annex  to  this  second  song,  follows  a  hymn  to  Nanabush 
in  rhymes,  of  which  the  beginning  is  as  follows: 

1.  Nanabush,  Nanabush  became  the  grandfather  of  all,  the 
grandfather  of  the  beings,  the  grandfather  of  the  men,  and  the 
grandfather  of  the  turtles. 

2.  The  men  were  there,  the  turtle  there ;  they  were  turtling 
altogether. 

3.  He  was  frightened,  he  the  turtle ;  he  was  praying,  he  the 
turtle ;  let  it  be  to  make  well. 

4.  Water  running  oft",  it  is  dryirig  in  the  plains  and  the  moun- 
tains, at  the  path  of  the  cave  j  elsewhere  went  the  powerful 
action  or  motion. 

DOCUMENT  I.,  c. 

TTiird  Song:   Fate  after  the  Flood,  Emigration  to  America* 

1.  After  the  flood,  the  manly  men,  Linapewi,  with  the  manly 
turtle-beings  ^  dwelt  close  together  at  the  cave-house  and  dwell- 
ing of  Talli. 

2.  It  freezes  was  there,  it  snows  was  there,  It  is  cold  was 
there. 

3.  To  possess  mild  coldness  and  much  game,  they  go  to  the 
northerly  plain,  to  hunt  cattle  they  go. 

4.  To  be  strong  and  to  be  rich,  the  comers  divided  into  tillers 
and  hunters,  Wikhichik,  Eloxoichik, 


•  Tulla  is  the  ancient  seat  of  tlie 
Toltecs  and  of  the  Mexican  na- 
tions, as  we  shall  see  farther  ;  Tii- 
lan  or  Turan  or  Central  Tartary  in 
Europe. 

"  To  the  Haytians  Hayti  was  a 
great  animal  like  the  turtle,  as  was 
their  country  *o  the  Chinese,  the 
Hindoos,  and  the  Linapis.      (Rafl- 


nesque,  t.  i.  p.  170 ;  from  the  work 
of  Father  Roman,  in  Cohimbus'a 
Life,  by  his  son.) 

'  The  name  of  the  boat  or  raft  is 
Mokol, — Mogul,  Mongol? 

♦  Ref.  to  pp.  112,  190. 

'  The  later  American  red-skinned 
aborigines  (?). 


588 


APPENDIX   OF    DOCUMENTS. 


5.  The  most  strong,  the  most  good,  the  most  holy,  the  hunters 
they  are. 

6.  And  the  hunters  spread  themselves,  becoming  Northerlings, 
Easterlings,  Southerlings,  Westerlings. 

7.  Thus  the  white  country,  Lumonaki,  north  of  the  turtle- 
country,  became  the  hunting  country  of  the  turtling  true  men. 

8.  Meantime  all  the  Snakes  were  afraid  in  their  huts,  and  the 
snake-priest,  Nnkopoivn,  said  to  all :  let  us  go. 

9.  Easterly  they  go  forth  at  Snakeland,  Akhokink,  and  they 
went  away  earnestly  grieving. 

10.  Thus  escaping  by  going  so  far  and  by  trembling,  the 
bui*nt  land,  Liisasaki,  is  torn  and  is  broken  from  the  snake  for- 
tified land,  Akomenaki. 

11.  Being  free,  having  no  trouble,  the  Northerlings  all  go 
out,  separating  at  the  land  of  snow,  Whiiaken. 

12.  The  fish  resort  to  the  shores  of  the  gaping  sea,  where 
tarried  the  fathers  of  White  Eagle  and  White  Wolf,  Waplanewa, 
Waptumewi. 

13.  While  our  fathers  were  always  boating  and  navigating, 
they  saw  in  the  East,  that  the  Snake-land  was  bright  and 
wealthy. 

14.  The  Head-beaver,  Wihlamok,  and  the  Big-bird,  Kicholen, 
were  saying  to  all :  let  us  go  to  the  snake-island,  Akomen. 

15.  By  going  with  us,  we  shall  annihilate  all  the  snaking 
people,  Wemaken. 

16.  Having  all  agreed,  the  Northerlings  and  Easterlings  went 
over  the  water  of  the  frozen  sea,  to  possess  that  land. 

17.  It  was  wonderful  when  they  all  went  over  the  smooth 
deep  water  of  the  frozen  sea,  at  the  gap  of  the  snake  sea  in 
the  great  ocean. 

18.  They  were  ten  thousand  in  the  dark,  who  all  go  forth  in 
a  single  night  iw  the  dark,  to  the  snake-island  of  the  Eastern 
land  Wapanaki  in  the  dark,  by  walking,  all  the  people,  Olini. 

19.  They  were  the  manly  North,  the  manly  East,  the  manly 
South ;  with  manly  Eagle,  manly  Beaver,  manly  Wolf;  with 
manly  hunter,  manly  priest,  manly  rich ;  with  manly  wife, 
manly  daughter,  manly  dog. 

20.  All  coming  there,  they  tarry  at  Firland,  Shincki.  But 
the  Western  men,  doubtful  of  the  passage,  preferred  to  remain 
at  the  old  turtle-land.* 


*  Were  not  these  the  tribes  of     lied    with 
northeastern  Siberia,  so  closely  al-     luaux  ? 


the    American    Esqui- 


DOCUMENT   II.,  b. 


589 


"  ThuH  end  these  interesting  and  positive  ancient  traditions," 
Eafinesque  says. 


DOCUMENT  II.,  a. 

SECOND   SERIES   OF   LINAPI   OR   NORTH   AMERICAN   INDIANS*    SONGS: 

Their  History  in  America} 
First  Song* 

1.  Long  ago,  the  fathers  of  men  were  then  at  Shinaki  or 
Firland. 

2.  The  path-leader  was  the  White  Eagle,  Wapalanewa,  or  First 
chief,  who  leads  them  all  there. 

3.  The   Snake-island  was   a  big  land,  a  fine  land,  and  was 
explored  by  them.  .  .  . 

Jji  'T*  'l^  'I*  't^  'P  'I^  *lC 

10.  After  him  there  Chilili,  Snowbird,  5th  chief,  was  king, 
who  says :  let  its  go  south. 

11.  To  spread  the  fathers  of  men,  Wokenapi,  and  to  be  able 
to  possess  more. 

12.  South   he  goes,   the  Snowbird;    but  east  he    goes,  the 
Beaver-he,  Tamakwi. 

DOCUMENT  II.,  b. 

Second  Song? 

**l^  k^  ^  ^  «i^  ^  ^1. 

1*  'T"  •T*  ^T*  "T*  'T'  ^p 

17.  After  Aymnek,  6th  king,  came  ten  kings,  in  whose  time 
there  was  much  warfare  south  and  east.* 

^^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^  ^^  "J* 

*l*  *T*  'T*  "T*  'T'  'T*  'f*  T> 

21.  King  afterwards  was  Matemik  or  Town-builder,  20th  king, 
who  built  many  towns. 

3[Q  ?(»  ^i*  *p»  Jj*  JJC  ^^  ,^ 

23.  King  afterwards  Avas  Olumapi,  manly  recorder  or  bundler, 
24th  king,  who  caused  many  writings. 

^j?  »j*  'I*  "T*  'J*  ?i*  ?J»  ry^ 

28.  There  was  no  raining,  and  no  corn  grew.     East  he  goes, 
Shiwapi,  28th  king,  far  from  the  sea. 

'  C.  S.  Rafineeq,ue,  The  American  *  Modern    times   repeat   ancient 

Nations,  t.  i.  p.  131,  seq.  histor;  ;    to    exauctorate    ancient 

*  Eef.  to  I      ±09,  113.  possePiors  entails  lasting  war. 
'  Ibid. 


590 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


1.1  '■ 


29.  Over  hollow  mountain,  Oligoimink,  at  last  to  oat  he  wont 
at  a  fine  plain,  Kalokivaming,  of  tho  cattlo-land. 

5K  *j^  ?i>  J|^  r^  ?fi  0^  3K 

32.  Being  angry,  some  went  easterly  and  secretly  went  far 
off.  .  .  . 

DOCUMENT  II.,  c. 

Third  Song} 

34.  It  was  at  the  Yellow  River,  Wisawana,  where  there  was 
much  corn,  large  meadows ;  and  again  were  built  towns.' 

^*  kl'  ^f  >.t'  ^f  %Lr  *^  Ola 

^^  'J*  ^»  '^^  ^*  ^^  '^  ^^ 

39.   Wingenund,  Mindful,  38th  king,  was  king  and  pontiff,  who 
made  many  festivals.' 

*v^  ^U  %^  \^  kLt  «1«  «1« 

^^  #J*  *J*  ^*  *J»  *^  ^K 

43-47.  The  kings  (42d  to  46th)  were  warring.* 
48.  To  the  sunrise,  he  said,  Opekasit,  46th  king,  let  us  go,  and 
there  are  many  who  together  go  east.  .  .  . 


;,     I 


I    ^' 


III    >■■'' 


M 


DOCUMENT   II.,  d. 
Fourth  Song? 

*iJm  *t<  t^  1^  \^  ^U  >X> 

r^  *^  r^  ^*  ^*  ^*  ^W 

61.  South  of  the  lakes  they  settle  the  council  fire,  and  the 
friends,  Talamatan,  north  of  the  lakes. 

62.  But  they  were  not  always  fi'iends,  and  were  conspiring 
when  Gunitakan,  Long-mild,  54th  king,  was  king. 

DOCUMENT   II.,  e. 
Fifth  Song.^ 

*\^  tlf  ^#  hL>  ^^  <i^  ^1< 

^^  ^^  ^^  *j*  ^j^  if*  ^^ 

5.  Lekhihitin,  Writer,  60th  king,  was  king,  and  painted  many 
books,  WaUamolumin.'' 

5|%  ^^  't^  ^^  ^^      •  ^^  ^^  'T^ 


1  Ref.  to  p.  113. 

'  Under  the  thirty-fourth  king. 

•  Rafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  154,  n.  20, 
remarks  that  Wingenund  must 
have  been  another  lej^islutor  and 
high-priest,  and  that  his  festivals 
are  called  Gentiko  and  known  by 
many  nation.^. 


*  That  epoch  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  invasions  by  many  nations, 
which  compelled  the  Linapis  to 
migrate  farther  east. 

6  Ref.  to  pp.  113,  114. 

«  Ref.  to  p.  114. 

'  Another  historian. 


DOCUMENT    III.,  a. 


591 


9.  Tankawon,  Little  Cloud,  64th  king,  was  king,  while  many- 
went  away. 

10.  The  Nentegos  and  the  Shawanis  went  to  the  south  lands.' 

DOCUMENT  11.,/. 

Sixth  Song.' 

k|j  stc  stc  «((  ^  ^  ^  sk 

26.  All  the  hunters  reach  the  salt  sea  of  the  sun,  Gishiksha- 
pipek,  which  was  again  a  big  sea. 

27.  Makhiawip,  Eed  aiTow,  76th  king,  was  king  at  the  tide 
water. 

*«A*  ^U  *A^  ^f  «X#  hl>  \Lr 

^^  ^^  *J^  'f*  ^*  fj^  ^^ 

39.  Pitenwnen,  Mistaker,  83d  king,  was  king,  and  saw  some 
one  come  from  somewhere. 

40.  At  this  time,  from  the  east  Sea  was  coming  a  whiter 
Wajm.  ... 

DOCUMENT  II.,  g. 

Seventh  Song? 

^0  %1^  %Lf  ^Lf  vL^  *1^  ^U  ^# 

58.  Nenachihat,  Watcher,  96th  king,  was  king  and  looking  at 
the  sea. 

59.  At  this  time,  north  and  south,  the  Wapayachik  came,  the 
white  or  eastern  moving  souls. 

60.  They  were   friendly  and   came   in   big  bird-ships.     Who 
are  they  ?  * 


DOCUMENT  III.,  a. 
Plato's  credibility  in  regard  to  atlantis.** 

"  'Ep/JOKp&riii'  '0  <r  oiv  ^fuv  Myov  t'KT^aaro  ek  iroKaiac  aKoviji,  bv  koI  vvv  Aiye, 
i  Kpiria ... 

Kpiriai'     Tai/ta  XPV  <Jp?v,  (l  koI  tw  rpirw  Koivufitji  Ti/taiV  ^wdoKel, 

Tc/talog'     AokbI  /ui^. 

Kptrlof  •    'AKOve  6^,  i>  l^Kpare^,  X6yov  /idXa  fih>  ardTTov,  Travr&iraal  ye  ftilv 


I 


*  Rafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  156,  n.  24,  nals,  so  curious,  and  so  plain  when 
observes:  "The  Linapi  tribes  be-  properly  understood  and  trans- 
gin  to  disperse  about  six  hundred  lated,"  says  Rafinesque,  t.  i.  p.  140. 
ycax-s  after  Christ."  *  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Timajus, 

'  Ref.  to  p.  114.  ed.  Godfredi  Stallbaum,  t.  vii.  p.  82, 

'  Item.  and  ed.  Immanuelis  Bekkeri,  pars 

*  "Thus  end  these  poetical  an-  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  9.     (Ref.  to  p.  130.) 


Mi 


I'll 


r< 


1  i. 


ii, 

I 


\mf 


«   ■ 


592 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


a?uj6ovi,  «f  i  tov  ijTTd  ao^i)TaTOi  SdAuv  jtot'  ^07*  '  Hv  //^v  oui>  oiMZof  ko*  a<p6dpa 
^i'Aof  ;J;/«i»  Apunldov  Tov  npoirdnirov,  Kad&nep  7(iyei  noT^x"*'  *<'?  avrdf  iv  r^ 
noi^aei'  Il/jdf  6i  Kptriav  rov  ^/drcpov  irdnnov  clnev,  (if  aittfivrjfiivtvtv  av  irpbf 
^/iaf  6  yfpuv,  irri  /uydXa  Kal  Oavfiaara,  r^aS  tl/j  irahua  Ipya  Tf/(  n6?£Uf  vn6 
XP&fov  Koi  ^opa(  avffp6iruv  r/^vicfiiva,  ir&vruv  ii  iv  /liyiarov,  ov  vvv  eni/ivtjo6eiei 
•trpinov.  .  .  . 

Sw/cpdr^f •  Ei  Tityttf  'A/Wa  6ii  noiov  Ipycv  tovto  Kpiriof  . .  iiriyetTO  Kara  rljv 
Xdhjvof  &Kovf]v ; 

Kpiriac  'Eyi)  ^p&oo' iralaiiv  aiaiKoui  X6yov  ov  viovavdpdf.  'Hv //iv  yap  Ji) 
Tire  Kptriof,  «if  i^jy,  axtiiv  iyyvs  ri6i)  rov  ivtv^Kovra  iruv,  iyit  ii  tj  fiihora 
itntrrii.  .  .  , 

(Stalib.,  p.  86 ;  Bekker,  p.  11.)  '0  6^  yipuv,  a<p6ipa  yap  olv  idjivriftai,  (loKa 
Tt  ^c^Tj  Kal  dca/utdidaof  cinev'  El  ye,  u  'A/iiniavdpe,  fi^  naptpy<t>  ry  noi^act  kctc- 
Xpf/aaro,  6M.'  ianovddKtt  Koddircp  &2I01,  t6v  re  Myov  6v  an"  Alyvrrrov  devpo  fjviyKaro, 
anerl^ae  (Solon),  . .  xard  /  i/i^  io^av,  olire  'Haioioc  oiire  'O/x^pof  obre  i^Xog 
oi/ieii  notTiT^i  tvdoKi(ii)repoi  iykvero  &v  nore  avrov. 

Tic  <r  ^  <J  X6yoc,  )J  (J*  6f ,  o  Kptrla ; .  .  .  Aiye  ef  dpxvi,  ^  ^  ^i,  ^"^  ^'^  "a^  "'"f  ""^ 
iropd  rivuv  uf  ahi6^  dtOK^Kobi  iXeyev  i  IdXuv.  'Eari  rcc  Kar'  Alywrrcv  . .  /leyiarif 
irdhf  Idle  ....  (Stalib.,  p.  87),  oJ  6^  IdXuv  i^t)  iropevOelt  o<p66pa  re  yeviaSai  nap' 
avTo'if  ivrtfiof,  koI  6^  Kat  ri  7ra?ata  dvspuruv  rove  ftd^ra  nepl  raiira  ruv  kpiuv 
ffinelpove  exeihv  odre  avrdv  olre  dTi^  'EX^iiva  ovdiva  ovdiv  wf  iifof  eljrriv,  elCdra 
nepl  ruv  rouAruv  avevpelv. 

Kal  nori,  itpoayayelv  PovXrfdeli  avrovf  rtepl  row  apxaiuv  elf  Myove,  ruv  (of  the 
Athenians)  r^de  to  apxaidrara  Aiyetv  eirixetpeiv  .  .  .,  Kal  riva  elireiv  ruv  iepluv 
ei  fi&hi  ncJuuiv'  i>  2<JXuv,  1,6'kuv,  'ET^rivee  del  naldig  iare,  yipuv  ii  'E^Mv  ovk 
ioriv  .  ,  .  (Bekker,  p.  18.)  'AKoiffat  oiv,  II«f  ri  rovro  Aiyetf ;  <^vai'  Viot  eari, 
e'meiv,  rdf  iivxa(  ndvrec  ovdeftlav  yap  ev  airait  /;f ere  61*  apxalav  aKofyv  itaTMtav 
id^av  ovSi  fiA6tifM  XP^V  ""oAidv  ovdiv  ....  (Stalib.,  p.  91 ;  Bekk.,  p.  14.) 
JIdvra  di  ou^d/ieva  Tiiyerat  naXaidrara  (in  Egypt)  .  .  'Oaa  di  ^irap'  i/ilv^r^de  ^ 
Kal  Kar'  i^o\'  rdnov  uv  aKoy  lafiev,  el  nob  ri  Ka^v  ^  /dya  yiyovev  rj  Kal  riva 
dtatpopdv  dX^v  ixov,  ndvra  yeypaftfiiva  Ik  naXawi)  t^9  icriv  iif  rolf  lepol(  Koi 
ceouaftiva  .... 

(Stalib.,  p.  92.)  To  yovv  viv  itj  yeveaXoyyiOivra,  i  Id^v^  nepl  ruv  nap'  i/juv 
&  di^Wef,  nalduv  Ppaxi)  ri  diatpipet  fi{/6uv  .... 

(Stalib.,  p.  108;  Bekker,  p.  19.)  Td  jiiv  di)  ^ivra,  t»  li/cporef,  inb  to& 
na?xuov  Kpirlov  Kar'  aKoi)v  r^  ZdAuvoc,  lif  ovvrd/iui  elireiv,  oK^Koac  ...  To  naiduv 
fiaO^juira  6av/Marbv  Ixti  ri  fivijfulovl  'Eyit  yap  a  piv  jfiif  fiKovaaovK  &v  olS'  rf 
dwaifuiv  inavra  iv  /tv^fty  ndXiv  Xafietv  raiira  di  a  ndftnoXov  xP^vov  diaxljKoa^ 
navrdnaat  fiavfidaatfi'  iv  el  rl  fit  avruv  diant^evyev.  'Hv  fUv  oiv  fiera  no^^f 
^dov^(  Kol  nai6ia(  rdre  dKOvdneva,  Kal  rov  npeafiirov  npodiftui  fie  diddoKovroif  di* 
i/wi)  noTMiKit  knave  pur uvroc,  uare  dtov  eyKaiftara  aveKn2.vrov  ypa^^i  Ifi/iovd  /wi 
yiyove.  Kal  d^  Kal  rolade  evOve  iXeyov  iu6ev  avrd,  raiira,  Iva  evnopolev  Myuv  fur* 
ifioii.  Nvv  oiv,  ovnep  IveKa  ndvra  elpvrat,  T^yeiv  e'lfd  crM/tof ,  u  ^Kpare{,  juj  /idvov 
(V  xt^o^oiotf,  aM.'  £)onep  rjKovca  Ka9  tKaarov, 

(Stalib.,  p.  106;  Bekker,  p.  20.)  'S.uKpdrr^'  Kal  riv'  Av,  St  Kptrla,  fiaViov 
avrl  robroi)  fteroMPoi/iev,  if  ry  re  napohay  rije  deoii  dvai^  did  r^v  oiKetdrtira  &v 
npinot  fid^ara,  rd  re  jiii  nT^aoQevra  ftiidov  aW  dhidivdv  Myov  elvat  nd/i(uU  noi/," 


I  .la 


DOCUMENT  IV.,  a. 


593 


DOCUMENT  IV.,  a. 

EXTENT  OF  THE  ATLANTIC  EMPIRE.* 

**....  lire  yip  iropticifiov  f/v  rb  hel  niXayoc  vijaov  yap  nph  rov  arSfiaTOf 
tlx^v,  b  KoXftTf,  6f  0OTe  vficic,  'UpaiMovc  arfiTiC^.  'H  6k  vijao^  afia  Ai(3ut;g  ijv  Koi 
'Aaias  fiel^uv,  ff  ^f  entparbv  enl  rag  dAAaf  v^oovg  roig  rin"  iyiyvero  nopevo/iivoif, 
in  <5i  Tuv  vijouv  inl  r^v  KaravTiKpi/  naaav  ijntipov  Ttjv  nepl  rbv  ahjdLvdv  CKtlvov 
nUvTov.  Tdde  /th>  ydp,  taa  evrbc  tov  crdftaTog  ov  Myofuv,  ijiaiveTai  lifiiiv  arevdv  uva 
kxuv  tlaKTMvv'  cKCivo  6e  ni?Myoc  ivTwf,  ^  ^"^  tftpiixovaa  avrd  y^  navreTiuc  a^ildu{ 
ipddrai'  &v  24yoiTO  rjneipoi, 

'Ev  61  6fi  Ti§  'Ar^vTtdi  viia<^  raiirr/  ftrydXri  cwtari)  Koi  Savpaar^  6vva/u(  Paaiktuv^ 
Kparovaa  ph>  girdotn  '^f  vfjoov,  ttoXkuv  re  a?thjv  v^uv  kqc  pepuv  Tjjf  ffirtlpov  npbf 


*  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Critias, 
ed.  Godfredus  Stallbaum,  t.  vii.  p. 
388,  and  ed.  Immanuel  Bekker, 
pars  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  149.  (Ref.  to 
p.  133.) 

'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Timseus 
and  Critias,  ed.  Stallbaum,  t.  vii. 
I — 38 


p.  93 ;  ed.  Bekker,  pars  iii.  vol.  ii. 
p.  15.    (Ref.  to  p.  133.) 

'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Tiraseua 
and  Critias,  ed.  Godfredus  Stall- 
baum, t.  vii.  p.  100,  and  Immanuel 
Bekker,  pars  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  17.  (Ref. 
to  p.  134.) 


'I 


DOCUMENT  III.,  6. 

SOURCE  OP  PLATO'S  INFORMATION.* 

"  VLp'trlas' ....  "HlvijeBivrtg  yap  Ikovuc  koI  arrayyei^vreg  t&  rrore  })tfitvra  xmh- 
Tuv  itptuv  ml  6evpo  iin-d  IdXuvog  KoptaOcvra,  axc6bv  ol6'  brt  ri^Se  rtp  6edrp<^  (Jdf  o- 
(uv  ri  TTpoci/Kovra  pcrpiuf  diroTETC^KCvat.  Jovr'  oini  avrb  ^6^  6paaTiov,  koI 
fitXhyrtov  ov6iv  In." 

DOCUMENT  III.,  c. 

WAR  BETWEEN  THE  ATLANTIS  AND  ATHENS.* 

••'AKotffOf  <Av6  IdTiuw  l^jf  davftdeat  ko*  iraaav  trpcOvpiav  <T;feiv,  6e6p£vo(  tu» 
Upiuv  ndvra  iC  OKpipeiac  ol  ra  rrepl  tuv  nd?uu  no^Tuv  l^^c  6ie^tlv.  Tbv  oiv 
kpia  ^vai'  *^<Jvof  Melc,  <5  IdXtw,  a?iXd  aov  re  cvcko  Ipu  ml  T^f  ndXtuc  v/iuv 
....  (Stallb.,  p.  94.)  Tvf  6i  iv6a6l  6taKoap^cui  irap'  fipiv  ev  toI{  iepols  ypdftm 
ftaotv  oKToiuaxMuv  Ituv  apiBpbg  yiypaiTTac,  .... 

(Stallb.,  p.  99 ;  Bekk.,  p.  17.)  Aiyet  yap  Ta  ytypappha,  iarrv  ^  irdhc  ipuv 
liravai  nort  6i)vapiv  vppti  itopevopivtjv  afut  inl  irdffav  Evp6n7iv  ml  Kaiav,  i^uBev 
bpp^tleav  Ik  tov  'At^vtckov  neMyovf 

(Critias :  Stallb.,  p.  388 ;  Bekk.,  p.  149.)  TldvTuv  <J^  npurov  pvtjadupcv  brt 
rd  Ktjid^Mtov  i^v  hdKic  x^^^  ^"^  ^^'  db  ytyovbg  iprp/ifiij  wdAf/iOf  ToZf  ff  vnip  UpaK- 
Xttas  ffTfJAof  l^u  KaroiKovai  ml  toI{  ivrbg  traatv," 


U; 


1^ 


II 


594 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


ie  TofjToti  tri  ruv  evrdf  njde  titfJinK  ^  ^pxovfitxpi  npb{  Alywrrov,  7i}(  dl  "RvpLiriK 
/dxpt  TvpPirviaf. 

(Oritiaa  :  Stallb.,  p.  389 ;  Bokker,  149.)  ....  'ArXavrldot  v^aov  .  .  ,,^iv  i^ 
AtpiiK  Kol  'Afftaf  ful^u  vrjaov  oiaav  li^aun  thai  irdre,  viiv  di  virb  atiaftuv  dvaav 
&iropov  Kiik&v  Totc  hSi-vde  cKKXiovatv  M  rb  iriXayoi,  uare  fiTjuiu  nopEieadcu,  kuXvt^ 
vapaaxtlv." 

DOCUMENT  IV.,  h. 

PRODUCTS   OF   THE   ATLANTIS.' 

"IIo^Ad  fiiv  y&p  dta  rrjv  apxv^  aiiTo'ig  (the  ten  kings  of  Atlantis)  irpoafietv 
IfuBev,  vXetara  6i  ij  v^aoc  avr»)  -napdxtro  eif  rflif  rov  (iiov  KaraoKtvar^,  vpurov  fth> 
baa  wrd  furaX^UfC  bpvrrdfieva  arepea  /cat  bad  ttikto,  yiyovs,  Kol  rb  vvv  bvofia^bfievov 
(lAt'Ov,  T&re  Si  irXiov  wd/iorof  fjv  rb  ylvoi  ck  y^(  bptrrrb/uvov  bpcixdXnov  kot^  rdnovf 
iroXM>{  riji  vfyjov,  nXifv  xpvoov  rijxi^rarov  h  rolf  rdrs  5v  koI  baa  J'Xri  npbc  rd  ruv 
TEnrivuv  diairovf/ftara  napixeratj  irivra  (jiipovaa  &(t>6om,  ra  tb  ai  nepl  ra  f  oa  huivuc 
^/iepa  Kat  &ypca  rpi^xtwa.  KaJ  6^  /cat  iXe(j>dvTuv  »/v  avT'^  yivog  ir^'iOTov.  TSo/Jf 
ydp  Toiic  re  &X^i(  iiioif,  baa  naff  kXr/  Ml  Klfivag  koi  irorafioiit  baa  i"  ai  Kar'  bp^.kai 
baa  iv  Totf  irsdloif  vi/ierat,  ^v/^naai  irap^  adtjv,  nal  TobT*^  ward  ravrh  r^  fiiy 
ficyiartp  irs^Kbu  koI  irokv^opiJT&rip. 

Ilpdc  6^  TcAroig,  baa  evdtdrj  rpiipei  nov  'yij  tSl  vvi),  /itfuv  ^  x^^li  ^  f tAuv  ^  x'»^^ 
oraKTuv  elre  avOuiv  elre  Kapiruv,  iijiepi  re  ravra  kuI  iipeppev  ev.  "Erf  6i  t6v  ^fitpov 
Kapn&v,  t6v  ts  ^tjpbv,  8f  »)/ttv  Tpoipf/i  evekA  tan,  «at  fiaotf  ;^(J(jtv  rov  atrov  ■xpoa- 
XP^/ura—Kahnj/iev  de  avrov  ra  fitpri  ^h/jrravra  bairpia — Kai  rov  baog  f  {(Atvof ,  ■rri)/iara 
Kat  jipiifiara  Kai  aKelfifiara  (ptpuv,  iraiSiac  re  8f  evcxa  7/(5ov?;f  re  yiyove  dvadijaai' 
piaroi  aspodpiuv  mpnbi,  baa  re  irapaftiOca  n^.ija/iovyi  iieradbpTna  ayair^d  Kd/ivavri 
TiQejiev, 

"Arravra  ravra  ^  r6re  irorl  oJiaa  i^'  ^?U(p  v^ao(  lepd  naU  re  Kot  Oau^affrd  mt 
irX^eaiv  hjceipa  iipepe.  Tovro  ovv  XanjSdvovrec  irdvra  napa  rijg  yrji  Kareaiteval^ovro 
rd  re  lepa  koi  rdf  paaiXiK&c  oiKfjaeiq  koI  rovf  T^ifdvag  Kol  ra  veiipid'Kol  ^i/iiraaav  rrjv 
i?2jiv  x^P'^'^t  roi(i3e  ev  rd^ec  diaKoa/iovvreg. 

....  "Erepo{  di  nap'  irkpov  Sexd/xevog,  KeKoa/iTj/xiva  Koafiuv,  iirepejiiXXero  el{ 
iiniafuv  ael  rbv  i/itrpoadtv,  ewf  etf  inK^ii^iv  fieyideai  KiX}.eai  re  Ipyuv  Melv  rtjv 
oliajaiv  iireipydaavro." 

DOCUMENT  IV.,  c. 
Neptune's  temple  in  atlantis's  capital.* 

•'  Td  diiii  TVi  aKpoir67\£ug  evrSg  flaalXeca  KareoKevaa/iiva  uJ*  ^'  'Ev  fiia<^  ftn 
ltp6v  ayiov  avrbOi  r^c  re  KXeirovi  ml  rov  Tloaeiduvoi  afiarov  d^etro,  irepifibhi* 
Xpvoifi  nepcfiepXrifievov,  rovr'  ev  <}  Kaf  apx^i  e<pirvaav  Kai  Kar'  hiavrbv  ek  waauv 
rCiv  diKO,  ?Ji^euv  £>pala  avrbae  arrereXow  lepd,  heivuv  iKdartp.     lov  6t  Tloaeiduvo^ 


M 


'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Critlas, 
ed.  Stallbaum,  t.  vii.  p.  409  ;  ed. 
Bekker,  pars  iii.  voL  ii.  p.  160. 
(Ref.  to  p.  136.) 


'  Platonia  Opera  Omnia,  Critias, 
ed.  Immanuelis  Bekker,  pars  iii. 
vol.  ii.  p.  164.  (Ref.  to  pp.  137, 
138.) 


DOCUMENT   IV.,  d. 


695 


airov  vf (if  ^v,  arailov  ftiv  ft^KOf,  tipof  di  rptol  nXiOpotf,  i^poc  6'  Inl  roiroif  eift- 
furpov  ideiv,  rWof  6i  ri  pap^apuibv  Ixovto{.  Jl&vra  6i  i^udtv  KtpirjXttyl>av  rbv  vtijni 
ipyiptf),  nXi)v  ruv  liKpurripluv,  rd  6i  axpuniipta  XP^'?-  To  6i  ivrdf,  rfjVftiv  bpo<p^ 
iAt^vrtv^v  I6elv  naaav  Xf"^'?  ""J  bptix&}.Kt^  ncnoiiihfUviiv,  t^  6i  &XKa  -n&vTa  ruv 
rolxuv  Tt  Kol  Kt6vuv  ml  idd^ovj  bpetxi^<i>  irepU2aPov.  Xpvca  ii  hyA^fiara  hi' 
OTTiaav^  rbv  ftiv  debv  l<fi'  apftarog  iarura  If  vnonrfpuv  "tnnuv  ijvloxov,  avrAv  re  imb 
fteyidovf  ry  Kopv(py  r^^hpo^i  itpanrdfievov,  tf^pyda(  <Ji  lirl  de2.iplvcn>  ixarbv  nimXu' 
Toaairra{  yip  hd/u^ov  airdf  ol  r&re  tlvat,  noMa  cT  &^2.a  dydA/iaro  idiuruv  avoB^- 
ftara  iv^v, 

Ilcpl  di  rbv  veirv  i^udev  ek^vef  djrdvrwv  laraaav  Ik  xp^ov,  ruv  ywatnuv  ko) 
avTw  boot  Tuv  itKa  iyeydvcaav  PaatMuv,  Kai  iroM^  irtpa  hvaBfifiara  fuy&TM  rirv  rt 
fiaaMuv  koI  Idioruv  l^  air^f  re  r^f  irdXeuc  Kai  ruv  l^uOtv  bauv  inijpxov, 

Bu/^6i  Tt  S^  ^\n>tir6/uvoi  fjv  rb  fiiyedos  Kal  rb  r^f  Ipyaaiac  rabry  tt)  KaraoKtvy,  KaV 
rd  paalXeia  /card  Toiird  npinovra  (tiv  ry  Trjj  apxvi  pcyiOct,  trpinovTa  di  Tfi  ntpi  t4 

Up6  KdOfM^." 

DOCUMENT  lY.,  d. 

HAVEN  AND  NEIOHBOimOOD  OF  ATI;aNTIS'8  CAPITAL.' 

"  Td  6i  vcdipia  rpi^puv  fitoTa  ^  koX  OKcvtJv  baa  rpif/peat  npoar/KCt,  ndvr(t  it 
l^^pTv/jtha  Uavuc  ....  (Stallb.,  p.  417  ;  Bekker,  p.  167).  Toiiro  d^  nav  (i.  e. 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  haven)  crw^wlro  fih  vnb  »ro/Uwv  koI  nvicvuv  oJw^ewv, 
i  di  iiidnXovi  Koi  6  fiiyiaros  A<yur)v  lye/ne  n?.otuv  koI  IfiirSpup  atjuKiimittvuv  ir&vToOtv, 
^vrjv  mX  66pvpov  navrodairbv  Kviirov  re  /leff  ijiiipav  koI  tJtd  V«"CT6f  imb  ir'Xiflovi 
napexo/iivuv. 

lb  filv  oiv  CiOTV  Kal  rb  nepl  r^v  6pxalav  oUrjaiv  axtibv  dip  rdf  i\txOif,  wv 
6ufivtiii6vtvTai,'  rijq  d"  hTihji  X'^P^i  "f  ^  ^ff<f  clxe  ical  rb  r^f  diOKoaftf/aeui  tldog 
iiTo/zv^/jovevaai  ireipariov. 

TlpoTOv  fttv  oiv  6  rdirog  aTra^  iXiyero  <3<p66pa  re  vipij^  xol  andro/ioi  ^k  OaMrrtif, 
rb  Si  irtpi  rrfv  ndXiv  nav  trediov,  iKeiviiv  (liv  rrepUxov,  avTb  di  kCxX^  neptex^f'^vov 
bptai  fiixpt  irp^i  T^  OiXarrav  Ka6ei/ihotc,  ^lov  kui  6fiaXi{,  irpdjjuiKei  6i  nav,  M 
ftiv  O&repa  Tpwxi^^<^  aradiuv,  Kara  61  fiiaov  anb  daMrrtK  ivu  SiaxMiJv.  '0  6i 
T6nos  wTOi  ITiiK  ^S  v^oov  npbs  vdrov  hiTpanro,  &nb  ruv  ipKTuv  KaT6/3op/)0(.  Td 
6i  nepl  airbv  bprj  rdre  ifivelro  n^6oi  Kal  ftlyedos  Kal  (cdAAof  napa  ndvra  Td  vvy 
bvra  yeyovivai,  Tro^Xdf  uiv  K^/ia^  Kai  n^avalac  nepwlKuv  h  iavroli  ixnvra  .  .  , 

(Stallb.,  p.  418;  Bekk.,  p.  168.)  TerpAyuvov  ftiv  aW  vn^px^  Td  nXeiar' 
ipdbv  Kal  np6/iijKec  bri  &  hiXtine,  KOireiOwro  rd^pov  kC/kA^  neptopvxOrlar^^,  Td 
a  pd$o(  Kol  nMrofrb  rt  p^KOi  avriji  dniarov /itv  rb'kexOtv,i>^ xf^P^o'^1^<^  ipy^t 
npbi  Tolc  d/lAo<f  Sianov^fiaai  roaovrov  elpat .  , .  . 

(Stallb.,  p.  420;  Bekk.,  p.  169.)  tlX^of  6i,  ruv  nhi  h>  t<?  jrerf/v*  XPIo^h^ 
irpb{  ndXe/iov  avSpav  kriroKTo  rbv  KX^pov  iKoarov  napix^iv  &v6pa  t^yefidva,  rb  Si  r(A 
lA^pov fjityt6o{  el(iiKa  StK&Kti  ^'crddut,  (ivptddci  6i  ^vfindvruv  ruv  iMipuw  ^oav 
li'  ruv  dibt  ruv  bpav  Koi  r^f  &M^  X^P^i  hnipavroi  /iiv  ipiBftbi  avOp6nuv 
Vityero." 


'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Critias,     Bekker,  para  iii.  vol.  ii.  p.  168. 
ed.  Stallbaum,  t.  viL  p.  416;  ed.     (Bef.  to  pp.  138, 139.) 


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DOCUMENT  v.,  a. 

OOVSaNHENT,  LAWS,  AND  SACRIFICES  OF  THE  ATLANTIDES.* 

••  T4  6i  6i)  Tov  a^nKo^/iiia&vruv  avroit  (the  Athenians)  ola  av  ^,  £>c  re  in* 
hpxfii  iyivtro,  /tv^W  ^^  /*)  artpifiuiiev  uv  in  Traldei  ivrec  ^Kovaaftev,  elf  rd  /liaov, 
cSiri  viiv  imodixtoitev  i/iiv  rol(  <plh)ic  thai  Koivd  .... 

(Stallb.,  p.  405;  Bekker,  p.  158.)  Kaddirep  h  rolf  wpdoBev  i^x^  nepl  r^( 
r«v  dedv  ^fe«f,  in  Karevel/iavro  yijv  naaav  ivOa  jiiv  /telZovt  Ai^fetf,  ivda  Si  ml 
lAdrrovf ,  lepi  0vaia{  re  airolf  Koraff/cevdf ovrt f ,  oirru  Of  koI  rijv  v^aov  JloatiSuv  Ttjv 
•AtAovtWo  Xa;(i»v  iKy&vovi  iavrov  KarifMuaev  ck  dvttr^i  ywoacdf  yewi^oc  h  nvi  r6n(,t 
tot^e  Tils  vfyjw .... 

(Stallb.,  p.  407 ;  Bekker,  p.  159.)  IXatdtw  6i  apl>ivuv  nivre  yev(au{  SMiiovc 
ytwita&fievoi  iOpii/aro,  ml  d^  v^aov  r^  'ArAavrWa  iraeav  6iKa  fiiptj  KaraveifMf 
rSiv  jikv  irptaPvT&Tuv  r^  irporipf,)  ynofuvt^  r^v  re  ftriTpi^av  olictjaiv  ml  rijv  iAkTi^ 
Jlvftv,  irAefuDTv  ml  hpiar^v  aHaav,  aireveifit,  PaaMa  re  rtiv  iMuv  mrtoTijae,  rob; 
ik  dXXovc  ipxovTOi,  iniari^  6i  apx^  iroXXuv  avdpimuw  Koi  rimov  itoTJJjs  X^P^ 
tiuKtv,  .  .  . 

(Stallb.  p.  408 ;  Bekker,  p.  160.)  Oirroi  6ii  vivre^  mroi  re  ml  iKyovoc  roiruv 
iirl  ycveof  iroMag  i^kovv  HpxovTes  fitv  tto^ov  &}^uv  Kara  rd  niXayoc  vijauv,  In  6i, 
bairtp  ml  irpirepov  t'pjyffiT],  nixpi-  re  AlydffTov  ml  Tvpl»iviai  ruv  ivr6(  devpo  in&p- 
Xovrec.  'ArXavroc  6i)  iroXii  fth>  hXko  ml  rifuov  yiyverai  yfvof ,  /JofftAedf  di  6  irpea- 
pbrarof  hei  rf  irpea^vr&rtft  ruv  hKy&vuv  irapadidoiic  M  yeveag  noUaf  ri)v  paaiXeiav 
dtiau^ov,  nhtvrov  fdv  Keierrifiivoi  tTJiBh  roaovrav,  bao{  olre  iro  irp6aOev  ev  6ma- 
areiacs  real  paaAtuv  yiyo'  ev  ohre  nore  varepov  yevtaBai  jafStos,  KareoKevaa/ih/a  6i 
ir&vra  ^v  oirolf  baa  kv  ndkei  ml  baa  Kori  r^v  aMtiv  x^l^v  ^  ipyov  KaraaKevd- 
eaadat. 

(Stallb.,  p.  421 ;  Bekker,  p.  ITC*.)  T«v  6im  paatXiuv  elf  Imarof  h  fdv  ru 
xaff  airrdv  /ifoei  m.ra  rijv  airov  k6X,v  ruv  av6puy  koX  ruv  nXeiarov  v6/iuv  fjpx^t 
KoXAl^uv  ml  iircKTiwvt  bv  ri-^  iOeTi^aeiev.  'H  di  h  AAAiJAotf  &px^  koI  mivuvia 
Kari  kmaroXdg  ^v  rcif  rov  Tloaeiduvoi,  uf  6  v6/ju>(  avraiis  rrapiduKe,  koI  ypdfi/iara 
ind  ruv  irpuruv  h  arf/Xy  yeypaftfiiva  bpeixahdvi),  fj  Kara  fiiavv  r^v  vijaov  lisetro  iv 
kp^  Tloaeiduvos.  Oi  6^  oi'  htavrov  irlfiirrov,  rork  6e  eva^Adf  iicrov,  ^weXiyovro,  ri^ 
re  apritfi  mi  r^  irepirr<^  ftipoc  laov  airovi/iovre{,  ivTL^eySfievoi  di  nepl  re  ruv  mtvuv 
iPovXeiovro  koI  i^a^ov  el  ri(  ri  napa^alvoi,  Kal  idtml^ov.  'Ore  di  dixd^eiv  fiiX- 
h)iev,  irlarets  aXk^Xoif  roidade  iSiSoaav  wpdrepov.  'Atpiruv  bvruv  raipuv  ev  r<^ 
TOW  Iloffwduvof  fcp^,  n&vot  yiyvdftevot  dim  fivref,  inev^dfuvoi  rui  de<fi  rb  Kexc^piO' 
fikvav  avr<t>  6v/m  iXelv,  dvev  aiSf/pov  ^vXotc  ml  ^pdxotc  ^pevav,  bv  6i  IXoiev  ruv 
rabpuv,  irpbc  r^  ar^hiv  npoaay\.:^vreq  mra  Kopwp^v  avr^g  la^rrov  Kord  ritv 
ypafifiiruv.  ... 

(Stallb.,  p.  428 ;  Bekker,  p.  172.)  m/wi  6i  voUol  ftiv  dAXoi  irepl  rd  lepi 
ruv  PaaAiuv  indaruv  ^aav  I6m,  ra  Si  fiiyiara  /t^  re  irori  brrXa  er"  AXk^Xovc  olaetv, 
Poifi^aeiv  re  nivras,  &v  nob  rtf  /ivruv  iv  nvt  irdXei  rb  paatXutbv  mraXheiv  em- 
Xetpij  yivo(.  Kotvf  6i,  mS&irep  ol  npbaOev  PovXevdfievoi  rd  Sbfavrd  nepliroXi/iov 
Kol  ruv  iXXuv  rrpd^euv,  ^ye/uvlav  inoSMvres  rfi  ArXavrua^  ytvei. " 


'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Critias, 
ed.  Ch)dA^U8  Btallbaum,  t.  vii.  p. 


404;  ed.  Bekker,  pars  iii.  vol.  11. 
p.  157.     (Ref.  to  pp.  139-141.) 


DOCUMENT  v.,  C. 


597 


DOCUMENT  v.,  b. 

ItEOENERACr  OF  THE  ATLANTIDES.* 

"  'Eni.wo^Mf  fiiv  ytveic,  fixP^  ""fp  «}  tov  6eov  ^(H(  avrdif  i^pKtt,  Kor^KOol  r» 
^aav  Tuv  v6/iuv  koI  irpibf  rb  fvyyni{  Otiov  ^iXo^pivu{  elxov  rd  ydp  t^pav^ftara  ahj' 
biva  KaX  Tt&vTtf  fuyiXa  tKiicrttvTo.  Upair^i  furi  fpov^aeus  irpbt  re  rdf  ael  ^v/x/icu- 
voiiaac  riixa^  xal  n-pdf  aU^Xovf  xP^f^h  ^^  if^^  apcr^(  ir&v  iTrtpopuvrec  a/uKpi 
^ovvTo  ra  irapdvra,  Kol  /xidiuc  l^pov  olov  d;t^of  rbv  tov  xpvaov  re  Koi  tuv  &Mm» 
Krri/iaTuv  fiy/cov,  aW  ov  fuOi/ovres  wrdT/w^f  rftd  rrXovrov'aKpdropti  airruv  5vr?f 
ia(bd}Junrro,  v^(j>ovre{  6i  ofv  KdBtitpuv  bri  xal  ravra  itdvra  Ik  ^iXia(  nyf  koiv^(  fieri 
oper^i  av^iverat,  tj  6i  roirruv  airovSy  koI  rifij  ^ivei  ravrd  re  avra  KOKelvTi  fwo- 
irdXXvrat  roiiroif.  'E/c  d^  Xoyiaiiov  re  roioirov  Koi  ^aeui  deiaq  wapafievoimft  Travr" 
airol^  Jiv^ffij}  a  npiv  SiijiBofiev. 

"BTTct  6'  ij  Toiii  deov  fiiv  ftolpa  l^tr^Xoq  iyiyvtro  iv  airolf  rroXX^  ry  9v7/T<fi  kcH 
to^TAkcc  avoKepavw/iivri,  rd  di  avOpimivov  Ifioi  iireKpArtt,  rAre  ^  rd  napivra 
^peiv  adwarovvrei  toxVf^vow,  koI  r0  dwo/tiiv  f^^  ^9*  aiaxpol  KoreipcUvovro,  ri 
Ki?ih(jTa  OTrd  tov  u/uurdrui'  airoMivref," 


DOCUMENT  v.,  c. 

ATLANTIS'S  DEFEAT  AND  SUBMERSION.* 

"  'Avr?  (^  iraaa  SwadpotaBeiira  e!f  fv  t^  diva/ui  (of  the  Atlantic  Kings)  t6v  rt 
trap'  v/ilv  (Athenians)  iml  rdv  nap'  ^/tiv  (Egyptians)  «a2  riv  cvrdf  tov  aT6/ittro( 
vdvra  t&kov  fii(  nor'  iKexelpijoev  dpftig  SovXovadcu.  T&re  ovv  i/utv,  6  "idhjv,  Tij( 
irdAewf  )J  dbvafuf  cif  airavraf  avdp6irovi  diwpai^t  apery  re  #co2  p6/jy  eyivero'  ndvruv 
yap  irpocT&aa  tv^x^  ""^  rixvai(  baat  Kard.  irdXeitov,  ri  fiiv  ruv'EMJjvuv  )}yow. 
(tivJi,  rdf  airr^  (wvuBelaa  e^  dvdyn^q  rdv  dXhjv  airoardvruv,  iirl  rovf  iffxdrovc 
i^iKOfiivti  Ktvdivovi,  Kpar^aaga  /xiv  ruv  imdvruv  rpdiraia  aviffr^ae,  robe  Si  (Jf  no 
iedovXofihofu^  duKitKvae  dovhJdyvai,  ro(i(  (T  d^Aovf,  baoi  Karoucovftev  evrdc  bpuv 
'HpaK?ieU»v,  d^6vu(  dvavre<:  rjKeyAtpoaev. 

'TcTipv  di  XP^  aeuT/tov  i(maluv  ml  KoraiAva/tSn'  yevoftivov,  /mc  iiftfpa;  xa2 
WKrdf  ;i;aXe7r^f  e^Oobaiji,  rb  re  nap'  iftuv  .ftdxtftov  ndv  a$p6ov  Uv  Kori  y^(,  ^  re 
*ArAavr2f  v^aof  uaai/TOf  Kori  r^(  daXbmK.  ivca  ^^viaVir  iib  xal  vbv  inopov  lUfi 
iSuptvv^ov  ylyovi  rb  km  »rf Aoyof ,  ntihA  nipra  fioMof  i/aroddv  bvroff  *v  ^  v^m( 
l^ofitvii  naplaxero." 


'  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Critias, 
ed.  Stallbaum,  t.  vii.  p.  424 ;  ed 
Bekker,  pars  iii.  voL  ii.  p.  172. 
(Bef.  to  p.  142.) 


*  Platonis  Opera  Omnia,  Timaeua, 
ed.  Godfredua  Stallbaum,  t.  viL  p. 
101 ;  ed.  Bekker,  pars  iii  voL  ii. 
p.  18,    (Ref.  to  p.  143.) 


598 


APPENDIX  OF  DOCUMENTS. 


DOCUMENT  VI.,  a. 

HORACE   POINTS   TO   OUR   CONTINENT.' 

"  No8  manet  Oceanus  circumvagus ;  arva,  beata 
PetamuB  arva,  divites  et  insulas, 
Beddit  ubi  Cererem  tollus  inarata  quotannis 
Et  imputata  floret  usque  vinea. 

^^  ^^  ^^  %^  ^1^  ^M 

Non  hue  Argoo  contendit  remige  pinus, 
Neque  impudica  Colchis  intulit  pedem ; 
Non  hue  Sidonii  torserunt  cornua  nautse, 
Laboriosa  nee  cohors  Ulixei.  .  .  . 
Juppiter  ilia  piae  secrevit  litora  genti, 
Ut  inquinavit  eere  tempus  aureum, 
M-  ^  dehinc  ferro  duravit  srocula,  quorum 
Piia  seeunda,  vate  me,  datur  fuga." 

VIRGIL  POINTS  TO  OUR  CONTINENT.* 

"  Super  et  Garamantes  et  Indos 
Proferet  imperium :  jacet  extra  sidera  tellus, 
Extra  anni  solisque  vias,  ubi  ccelifer  Atlas 
Axem  humero  torquet  stellis  ardentibus,  aptum." 

DOCUMENT    VI.,  6. 

Seneca's  land  beyond  the  ocean.' 

"  Nil,  qua  fuerat  sede,  reliquit 
Pervius  orbis  .  .  . 
Indus  gelidum  potat  Araxen, 
Albim  PersflB  Bhenumque  bibunt. 
Venient  annis  ssecula  seris, 
Quibus  oceanus  vincula  rerum 
Laxet,  et  ingens  pateat  tellus, 
Tethysque  novos  detegat  orbes. 
Nee  sit  terris  ultima  Thule." 


»  Horace,  Epode  XVI.,  alias  XI., 
V.  41-46,  67-61,  63-66.  (Ref.  to  p. 
160.) 

•Virgil,  ^neid.  VI.,  796,  ap. 
Winsor,  Narrative  and  Critical  His- 


tory of  America,  vol.  i.  p.  27.    (Ref. 
top.  150.) 

*  Seneca,  Medea,  act  ii.  v.  371- 
379.    (Ref.  top.  150.) 


DOCUMENT   VII.,  b. 


599 


DOCUMENT    VII.,  a. 

DANTE   DISCOVERING   AMERICA.^ 

"  lo  e  i  compagni  eravam  vecchi  e  tardi, 
Quando  venimmo  a  quella  foee  stretta, 
Ove  Ercole  segno  li  suoi  riguardi, 
Acciocche  1'  uom  piu  oltre  non  si  metta ; 
Dalla  man  destra  mi  lasciai  Sibilia, 
Dair  altra  gia  m'  avea  lasciata  Setta. 
O  Frati,  dissi,  che  per  cento  milia 
Perigli  siete  giunti  all'  Occidente, 
A  questa  tanto  picciola  vigilia 
De'  vostri  sensi,  ch'e  del  rimanente, 
Non  vogliate  negar  V  espericnza, 
Dietro  al  sol,  del  mondo  senza  genie. 
Considerate  la  vostra  semenza : 
Fatti  non  foste  a  viver  come  bruti, 
Ma  per  seguir  virtute  e  conoscenza." 


DOCUMENT    VII.,  h. 

PULCI   PROPHESIES   THE   DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA.* 

"  Sappi  che  questa  opinione  h  vana, 
Perche  piu  oltre  navicar  si  puote, 
Pero  che  1'  acqua  in  ogni  parte  e  plana, 
Benche  la  terra  abbi  forma  di  ruote ; 
Era  piu  grossa  allor  la  gente  umana, 
Tal  che  potrebbe  arrossirne  le  gote 
Ercule  ancor  d'  aver  posti  que'  segni, 
Perche  piu  oltre  passeranno  i  legni. 

E  puossi  andar  giu  nell'  altro  emisperio, 
Pero  che  al  centro  ogni  cosa  reprime : 
Sicche  la  terra  per  divin  misterio 
Sospesa  sta  fra  le  stelle  sublime. 


*  Dante,  Divina  Commedia,  In- 
ferno, canto  xxvi.  v.  105-120.  (Bef. 
top.  156.) 


*  Puici,  Morgante  Maggiore,  xxv. 
229,230.     (Ref.  top.  159.) 


ii 


600 


APPENDIX   OP   DOCUMENTS. 


E  laggiu  Bon  oitta,  castella,  e  imperio ; 
Ma  nol  cognobbon  quelle  gente  prime. 
Vedi  che  il  sol  di  camminar  s'  affretta, 
Dove  io  dico  che  laggiu  s'  aspetta." 


.■Tl 


I 


•       '3 

!    f  j      ?  ? 

I  i  i 


-1  ^'  t 


Ji 


\u 


DOCUMENT    VIII.,  a. 

AMERICAN   NATIVES   IN   EUROPE   BEFORE   CHRIST.* 

"  Idem  Nej  08  de  Septontrionali  circuitu  tradit  Quinto  Metello 
Celeri,  L.  Afranii  in  Consulatu  coUegaB,  sed  tum  Gallise  pro- 
consuli,  Indos  a  rege  Suevorum  dono  datos,  qui  ex  India  com- 
mercii  causa  navigantes  tompestatibus  essent  in  Germaniam 
abrepti." 

DOCUMENT    VIII.,  6.» 

*'  Prseter  physicos  Homerumque,  qui  universum  orbem  mari 
eircumfusum  esse  dixerunt,  Cornelius  Nepos,  ut  recentior,  ita 
auctoritate  certior :  testem  autem  Q.  Metellum  adjicit,  eumque 
ita  retulisse  commemorat,  cum  GallisB  pro  Consule  prseesset, 
Indos  quosdam  a  rege  Boiorum  dono  sibi  datos;  unde  in  eas 
terras  devenissent  requirendo  cognosse  vi  tempestatum  ex  In- 
dicis  roquoribus  abreptos,  emensosque  quae  intererant,  tandem 
in  GerraanitB  littora  exiisse." 


f 


DOCUMENT    IX.,  a. 

AMERICAN   NATIVES  SAIL  TO  EUROPE  ABOUT  THE  YEAR   1508.* 

"  Non  me  piget  inter  hiec  ejusdum  temporis  (1508)  rem  dig- 
nam  propter  novitatem,  quae  legentibus  nota  sit,  scribere.  Navis 
Gallica  dum  in  oceano  iter  non   longe  a  Brittannia  faceret, 


1 

■ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

'  v^H 

•  Plinius,  ii.  p.  67  ;  cf.  von  Hum- 
boldt, Examen  Critique  de  I'His- 
toire  de  la  G^ographie  du  Nouveau 
Ck>ntinent,  t.  ii.  p.  262.  (Ref.  to  p. 
167.) 

'  Pomponius  Mela,  lib.  iii.  cap. 


V.  IT  8 ;  of.  von  Humboldt,  ibid.,  n. 
2.     (Ref.  to  pp.  167,  168.) 

'  Degl'  Istorici  delle  cose  Vene- 
ziane,  t.  ii.  ;  Petri  Card.  Bembi 
Historise  Venetae,  lib.  vii.  p.  267. 
(Ref.  top.  171.) 


DOCUMENT   X. 


601 


naviculam  ex  mediis  abscissis  viminibus  arbonimqno  libro  so- 
lido  contectis  ledificatam  copit:  in  quu  homines  crant  septem, 
mediocri  statura,  colore  subobscuro,  lato  et  patente  vultu,  cica- 
tricequo  una  violacea  signato.  Hi  vestem  habebant  e  piscium 
corio,  maculin  earn  variantibus,  coronam  e  culmo  pictam  septem 
quasi  auriculis  intextara  gerebant.  Came  vescebantur  cruda, 
sanguinemque  uti  nos  vinum  bibebant.  Eorum  sermo  intelligi 
non  poterat.  Ex  iis  sex  mortem  obierunt :  unus  adolescens  in 
Aulercos,  ubi  rex  erat,  vivus  est  perductus." 

DOCUMENT    IX.,  b} 

"Continuator  Palmerii  auctor  est,  anno  Dni.  1509,  delatam 
fuisse  eo  anno  Rhotomagum  usque,  Gallioj  oppidum,  eymbam 
quandam  portatilem  similem  his,  quro  in  Orbe  Novo  conspiciun- 
tur,  et  in  ea  septem  ex  ipsis  India,  qui  fulgineo  colore  erant,  ceu 
homines  sylvestres,  grossis  labris,  stigmata  in  facie  gerentes,  ab 
ore  ad  medium  mentum,  instar  livida)  venul®  per  maxillas  de 
duct8B,  et  nudi  incedebant,  solum  baltheum  gestantes,  in  quo 
erat  bursula  ad  verenda  tegenda.  Barba  per  totum  corpus 
nulla,  neque  pubes,  neque  ullus  pilus,  pra3ter  capillos  et  su- 
percilia." 


DOCUMENT    X. 

GOLDEN   AGE   OF   THE   AMERICAN   ABORIGINES.' 

A  legend  related  by  Kahgegagahbawh,  chief  of  the  Ojibway 
nation,  or  Chippeways,  in  his  "  Traditional  History  of  the  Ojib- 
way Nation."  The  author  was  brought  up  in  the  woods,  but 
passed  twenty  months  in  a  school  in  Illinois,  and  learned  the 
traditions  of  his  people,  as  was  customary,  from  the  lips  of  the 
chief,  his  father.  An  attempt  has  been  made  to  retain  and 
crystallize  his  poetic  beauty,  by  the  translator,  Ida  Sexton 
Searls. 


*  Solorzano,  De  Indiarum  Jure,  '  Indian  Legends  of  Minnesota, 
lib.  i.  cap.  V.  "il  12,  p.  51.  (Ref.  to  compiled  by  Mrs.  Cordenio  A.  Sev- 
p.  171.)  erance,  pp.  126,  180.     (Ref.  to  p. 

175.) 


602  APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 

"  The  chieftain  sat  in  his  wigwam  door 
And  smoked  his  evening  pipe, 
While  a  crowd  of  Indian  boys  and  girls, 
.       Knowing  his  wisdom  ripe. 
Were  begging  him  to  a  story  tell, 

For  votive  offering  brought. 
The  tobacco  loved  by  the  aged  sage. 
So  he  told  the  tale  they  sought. 

"  '  There  was  once  a  time  when  the  world  was  filled 

With  a  people  happy,'  he  said ; 
'The  crimson  tide  of  war  rolled  not, 

Nor  against  each  other  led 
Each  rival  tribe  their  warriors  brave, 

For  the  nations  were  as  one ; 
The  frightful  scourge  that  has  wasted  us 

Had,  happily,  not  begun. 


Hi: 


yyp 


T  "i 


A         i 


"  '  With  game  in  plenty  forest  and  plain 

Abounded.    None  were  in  want, 
And  ghastly  famine  never  touched 

The  tribes  with  its  finger  gaunt. 
At  the  bidding  of  man,  the  beasts  of  the  field 

All  meekly  went  and  came  ; 
But  he  fearad  them  not,  nor  reason  had, 

For  all  were  harmless  and  tame. 


"  '  Unending  spring  for  winter's  blasts 

And  chills  gave  never  a  place  ; 
Each  tree  and  bush  bowed  low  with  fruit ; 

So  needed  they  not  the  chase. 
A  carpet  of  flowers  covered  the  earth, 

While  the  air  with  their  perfume 
Was  laden.    The  songs  of  mated  birds 

Eose  ever  in  sweetest  tune. 

"  '  The  earth  was  indeed  a  paradise, 
And  man  was  worthy  to  live 
'Mong  these  delights  in  tranquil  peace 
That  merit  alone  can  give. 


m 


DOCUMENT   XI.,  a. 

The  Indians — sole  possessors  then — 

Eoamed  here  and  there  at  will, 
O'er  plains  and  lakes  and  wilderness — 

Ah,  that  it  were  so  still ! 

"  *  They  numbered  millions,  as  nature  designed. 

Enjoying  her  many  gifts. 
The  sports  of  the  field  were  their  delight : 

Such  life  the  soul  uplifts. 
They  watched  the  stars  with  loving  gaze, 

And  thought  that  they  must  be 
The  homes  of  the  good,  with  the  Great  Spirit 

In  the  heavens  roaming  free.  .  .  .'  " 


603 


DOCUMENT  XL,  a. 

AGGLUTINATIVE   GREENLAND   LANGUAGE.' 

"  Ad  res  in  grammatica  Groenlandica  notatu  dignissimas  per- 
tinent verba  composita.  Nimirum  verba  in  idiomate  Groen- 
landico  magnam  patiuntur  mutationem  aut  insigne  sortiuntur 
augmentum  significationis,  per  literas  quasdam,  quse  literis 
radicalibus  et  afformativis  interseruntur :  quse  literee  ex  aliis 
desumuntur  verbis,  quorum  significatio  ita  additur  ejus  verbi 
significatui,  quod  hoc  pacto  augetur,  e.  gr. : 

'■'■  AuUsariartorasuarpok :  ille  properans  piscatum  ibat.  Heic 
tria  h83C  concun-ant  verba:  aulisarpok,  piscatur:  piartorpoky 
proficiscitur  ut  aliquid  faciat ;  pinnesuarpok,  festinat  facere. 
.  .  .  Atque  hinc  evenit  ut  verba  ac  nomina  in  sermone  Groen- 
landico,  integras  propositiones  comprehendere  queant,  et  non- 
nunquam  in  undecim  aut  duodecim  pluresve  syllabas  excrescant. 
Dns.  Paulus  Egede  hujus  commatis  enumerat  epentheses,  quae 
omnes  uno  alterove  modo  verbi  significationem  augent  aut 
variant  .  .  .  e.  gr. :  solere  facere,  incipere  facere,  facere  aliquid 
prius,  venire  ad  faciendum,  curare  aliquid  faciendum,  facere 
tantum,  facere  propemodum,  valere  facere,  facere  multum,  forte 
facere,  properare  facere,  cessare  facere,  simulare  se  facere,  de 
integro  facere,  studiose  facere,  male  facere,  occupatum  esse  in 
faciendo,  etc." 

*  Scripta  a  Societate  Hafniensi,  paiB  11.  p.  154.     (Ref.  to  p.  311.) 


604 


APPENDIX   OP    DOCUMENTS. 


K  •  ■  i  ,■ 


I.  'i 


i.l'- 


'll 


,  I'  ■'  ;^j 


If-,,: 

RjJH"-:, 


DOCUMENT  XI.,  b. 

HUNGARIAN    LANUITAGE,   TURANIAN.' 

"  Idem  in  lingua  Hungarica :  Nimirum,  verbum  unum  idomquo 
significationes  indiiit,  certe  Hi  usus  sormonia  ferat,  induere 
potest,  viginti,  triginta,  inio  quinquaginta,  septuaginta  aut  plane 
octoginta  ...  [p.  158] :  Hoc  in  primis  est  memorabile,  quod 
lingua  Hungarica  in  iis  rebus  in  quibus  a  cajteris  Europrois 
discedit,  cum  Groenlandica  consonet :  nimirum  quod  nulla  vox 
a  duabus  aut  tribus  consonantibus  incipiat,  quod  nullum  sit 
discrimen  inter  genera,  quod  suftixa  adhibeantur,  eaque  ojque 
ac  aiformativa  verborum  sint  terminationes  pronominum,  quod 
radix  sit  3*  personna  prresontis,  quod  verba  augmentum  signifl- 
cationis  recipiant  per  literas  epentheticas  et  preBpositiones  fini 
vocum  adjectas. 

"  Exinde  autem  earn  elicere  sequelam  non  sustineo,  Hungari- 
cum  et  Groenlandicum  idioma  unquam  unum  idemque  fuisse ;  sed 
hoc  tantum  conjicio,  eos  forsan  ex  eodem  tractu  aut  eadem  orbis 
terrarum  parte.  Magna,  puta,  Tartaria  oriundos." 


DOCUMENT  XI.,  c. 

AMERICAN   LANGUAGES,    URAL-ALTAIC* 

"Es  drangt  uns  zu  fragen  ob  nicht  der  Sprachetjrpus  der 
Amerikaner  gerade  darauf  hindeute,  dass  sie  vor  ihrer  Ein- 
wanderung  in  die  Neue  Welt  mit  Ural-Altaischen  Volker  auf 
einer  gemeinsamen  Entwicklungsstuffe  gestanden  sind.  .  .  . 
Wie  die  Ural-Altaischen  Sprachen,  bedient  sich  die  Amerikan- 
ische  Sprache  zur  Sinnbegrenzung  nur  der  Suffixe ;  zugleich  ist 
sie  befahigt  einen  vielgliedrigen  Sats  in  ein  einzeges  Wort  zu- 
sammen  zu  fassen,  also  polysynthetisch  zu  verfahren.  Der 
Gronlander  bildet  ein  einziges  Wort,  wenn  er  den  Gedanken 
ausdrixcken  will :  '  Er  sagt  dass  auch  Du  eillig  hingehen  woUest, 
um  dir  ein  schones  Messer  zu  kaufen  :' 

'■'■  Sanig-iksini-ariartok-asuar-omar-y-otit-tog-og. 

"  Messer  schon  kaufen  hingehen  eilen  willen  ebenfalls  Du  auch 
er  sagt." 

*  Scripta  a  Societate   Hafniensi,        '  O.   Peschel,  Volkerkunde,  pp. 
parte  11.  pp.  156,  158.     (Ref.  to  p.     433,  434.    (Ref,  to  p.  311.) 
311.) 


DOCUMENT   XI.,  d. 


605 


DOCUMENT  XL,  d. 

AQGLUTI  NATIVE   ALQIO   LANQUAOKS.' 

"'iTie  Algic  (Algonquin  family  of  languages)  vocables,  in  in- 
numerable instances,  include  a  bunch  of  ideas,  a  cluster  of 
relations,  or  both  combined,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  English 
and  most  other  languages  would,  for  their  adequate  expression, 
frequently  require  as  many,  or  nearly  as  many,  independent 
words,  as  the  Indian  vocable  contains  syllables.  .  .  .  Abisk  is 
one  of  those  word  elements  that  go  to  make  up  innumerable 
compounds.  Thus  it  appears  in  piioabisk,  metal.  In  the  word 
wasaskuteniganabisk,  abisk  is  qualified  by  wasasktitenigan,  any 
contrivance  for  illuminating  purposes,  a  torch,  a  lamp,  a  candle. 
The  compound,  accordingly,  signifies  a  piece  of  metal  used  for 
illuminating  purposes, — that  is,  a  metal  candlestick.  The  his- 
tory of  the  qualification  wasaskutenigan  is  as  follows:  Of  the 
root  was,  which  implies  shining,  luminosity,  and  the  noun 
iskute,  fire,  is  formed  a  verb,  wasaskutenike,  he  illumines,  he 
uses  fire  for  a  light;  and  this  is  transformed  into  the  noun 
wasaskutenigan,  a  contrivance  for  making  light  by  the  means 
of  fire.  But  let  us  return  to  our  metal  candlestick,  wasasku- 
teniganabisk. This  is  again  qualified  by  the  compound  osawa- 
soniya,  yellow  silver,  gold.  A  syllable  wi  only  serves  to  solder 
the  noun  and  the  adjective,  and  we  have  osawasoniyawiwasas- 
kuteniganabisk,  a  yellow-silver  light-making-fire  metal,  or  a  gold 
candlestick.  The  prefix  kit  before  nouns  represents  the  pos- 
sessive pronoun  of  the  second  person  singular ;  and  the  letter 
m  affixed  to  our  noun  by  means  of  the  connective  vowel  u 
enhances  the  idea  of  possession.  Hence  kitosawaniyawiwasas- 
kuteniganabiskum  would  mean  thy  own  gold  candlestick.  By 
further  adding  the  double  dimunitive  ending  isis  the  meaning 
of  the  noun  is  reduced  to  a  very  little  gold  candlestick.  The 
suffix  inow  shows  that  the  speaker  shares  with  the  person 
addressed  the  ownership  of  the  object  in  question,  and  then 
the  prefix  kit  refers  to  several  persons.  In  consequence,  the 
vocable  thus  obtained,  kitosawaniyawiwasaskuteniganabiskumisis- 
inow,  includes  the  idea  of  my  and  thy,  or  my  and  your,  or,  in 
either  case,  of  our  .  .  .  candlestick.  The  plural  ending  ak 
would  show  that  there  is  question  of  several  articles  of  the 


»  Amer.  Cath.  Quar.  Rev.,  vol.  ii.  p.  312.     (Ref.  to  p.  311.) 


606 


APPENDIX    OF    DOCUMENTS. 


I  ' .        < 


same  kind.  By  insortin^  betwoon  tho  pronominal  prefix  kit, 
and  tho  body  of  tho  compound,  the  qualification  nyamie,  relating 
to  prayer,  or  used  in  the  church,  tho  form  kitayamiewosawasoni- 
yawiwasnskutenir/anahiskumisisinowak  will  bo  obtained,  with  the 
signification,  fully  explained,  of:  our  own  very  little  gold  church 
candlesticks." 

DOCUMENT    XL,  e. 

A   SPECIMEN   OP   NEZ    PERCE8    LANGUAGE.* 

The  Noz  Forces,  a  branch  of  whom,  the  Wallawallas,  reside 
in  my  former  mission  of  Pendleton,  Oregon,  have  an  agglutina- 
tive form  of  language.  By  taloposa  they  express  prayer,  wor- 
ship ;  to  which  they  add  nudsh,  house,  to  "igTiifV  a  ohuich  ;  and 
the  idea  of  being  in  tho  church  is  conveyed  by  tho  affix  pa, — 
talaposnnudshpa.  This  language,  however,  like  several  other 
dialects,  is  not  devoid  of  vocal  inflection ;  euphony  alone  will 
cause  a  vowel  to  be  changed  into  another.  Thus  nudsh,  hou°j, 
will  become  nuesh  in  tho  compound  Ushnuesh,  house  of  delight, 
heaven. 


t  ', -'; 


DOCUMENT    XII. 

ONE   GOD   CREATOR   OF   ALL    IN   MEXICO.' 

"  Estos  [the  Mexicans]  alcanzaron  con  claridad  el  verdadero 
origen  y  principio  de  todo  el  Univorso,  porque  asiontan  que  el 
cielo  y  la  tierra  y  cuanto  en  ellos  so  halla,  es  obra  de  la  poderosa 
mano  de  un  Dios  Supremo  y  linico,  a  quien  daban  el  nombre  de 
Tloque  Nahuaque,  que  quiere  decir,  criador  de  todas  las  cosas. 
Llamabanle  tambien  Ipalnemohualoni,  que  quiere  decir,  por 
quien  vivimos  y  somos ;  y  fue  la  unica  deidad  que  adoraron  en 
aquellos  primitivos  tiempos ;  y  aun  despues  que  so  introdujo  la 
idolatria  y  el  falso  culto,  le  creyeron  siempre  s-.perior  a  todos 
BUS  dioses,  y  le  invocaban  lavantando  los  ojos  al  cielo.  En  esta 
creencia  se  mantuvieron  constantos  hasta  la  llegada  de  los 
Espafioles,  como  afirma  Herrera,  no  solo  los  Mejicanos,  sine 
tambien  los  de  Michoacan.'" 


»  Ref.  to  p.  311. 

*  Bancroft,  The  Native  Races  of 
the  Pacific  States,  vol.  iii.  p.  56,  n. 
13.    (Ref.  top.  375.) 


*  Veytia,    Historia    Antigua    de 
Mejico,  t.  i.  p.  7. 


DOCUMENT   XIII. 


607 


"  Los  Tiiltecas  aloanzaron  y  supieron  la  croacion  dol  mundo, 
y  oomo  cl  Tloqiio  Nahuaquo  lo  (tio  y  las  dunian  cosas  quo  hay 
en  61,  coiiu)  Hon  plantas,  moiitort,  ani  males,  aves,  agua  y  pocos ; 
asimismo  Hupieron  como  crio  Dios  al  hombro  y  una  muger,  de 
dondo  lofl  hombroH  deecendieron  y  se  nmltipliearon,  y  sobre  esto 
afiadon  muchaH  fiibulas  quo  por  oscuHar  prolijidad  no  se  ponen 
aqui." ' 

"...  Dios  Criador,  quo  en  lengua  Indiana  llamd  Tloquo 
Nahuaquo,  -  "^riondo  dAr  a  ontondor,  quo  oste  Solo,  Podoroso,  y 
Clomontissimo  Dios." ' 

"Confessavan  los  Moxieanos  a  un  Supremo  Dios,  Soflor,  y 
hazodor  de  todo,  y  ciolo  y  tiorra." ' 

"El  dios  quo  so  llamaba  Titlacaaon  [Tezcatlipoca (?) ]  decian 
que  era  eriador  del  cielo  y  do  la  tiorra  y  era  todo  podoroso."  * 

"  Tezcatlipoca,  quosto  era  il  maggior  Dio,  che  in  quo'  paosi  si 
adora^a,  dopo  il  Dio  invirfibilo,  o  Supremo  Essero.  .  .  .  Era  il 
Dio  dalla  Providenza,  1'  anima  del  Mondo,  il  Creator  dol  Ciolo 
©  dolla  Terra,  ed  il  Signor  di  tutto  lo  coso." ' 


DOCUMENT    XIII. 


INDIAN   MYTHS   ABOUT  THE   ORIQIN   OF  MAN." 

"The  American  aborigines  had  a  groat  many  curious  ideas 
as  to  the  way  in  which  man  was  created,  of  which  the  follow- 
ing is  a  condensed  statement :  The  grossest  conceptions  of  the 
beginning  of  man  are  to  be  found  among  the  rude  savages  of 
the  North,  who,  however,  as  they  are  quite  content,  in  many 
instances,  to  believe  that  their  earliest  progenitor  was  a  dog  or 
a  coyote,  seem  entitled  to  some  83anpathy  from  the  latest  school 
of  modern  philosophy,  though  it  is  true  that  their  process  of 
development  was  rather  abrupt,  and  that  they  did  not  require 
very  many  links  in  their  chain  of  evolution.  But  as  we  ad- 
vance farther  south,  the  attempts  to  solve  the  problem  grow  less 


in 


*  Ixtlilxochitl,     Relacionea, 
Kingsborough,  vol.  ix.  p.  321. 

*  Boturini,    Idea  de   una   Hist., 
p.  79. 

*  Herrera,    Hist    Gen.,  dec.  ill. 
lib.  il.  cap.  XV.  p.  85. 


*  Sahagun,  Hist.  Ant.  Mex.,  t.  i. 
lib.  iii.  p.  241. 

"  Clavigero,  Storia  Antica  del 
Messico,  t.  ii.  p.  7. 

•  Bancroft,  The  Native  Kacee  of 
the  Pacific  States,  vol.  v.  p.  18,  n, 
41.    (Ref.  topp.  2,  380.) 


608 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


I"   +1 


' 


'!■'(■ 
ii'          1 

1; 

'.  'ii 

!  ti 

1     ■    (  ; 

!,  r  ' 

1     ' 

simple,  and  the  direct  instrumentality  of  the  gods  is  required 
for  the  formation  of  man.  The  Aleuts  ascribe  their  origin  to 
the  intercourse  of  a  dog  and  a  bitch,  or,  according  to  another 
vei-sion,  of  a  bitch  and  a  certain  old  man,  who  came  from  the 
North  to  visit  his  brute  bride.  Prom  them  sprang  two  crea- 
tures, male  and  female,  each  half  man  and  half  fox ;  and  from 
these  two  the  human  race  is  descended.  Others  of  the  Aleuts 
believe  that  their  canine  progenitor  fell  from  heaven.  The 
Tinneh  also  owe  their  origin  to  a  dog;  though  they  believe 
that  all  other  living  creatures  were  called  into  existence  by  an 
immense  bird.  The  Thlinkeet  account  of  the  creation  certainly 
does  not  admit  of  much  cavilling  or  dispute  concerning  its 
chronology,  method,  or  general  probability,  since  it  merely 
states  that  men  were  'placed  on  the  earth,'  though  when  or 
how  or  by  whom  it  does  not  presume  to  relate.  According  to 
the  Tacully  cosmogony,  a  musk-rat  formed  the  dry  land,  which 
afterwards  became  peopled,  though  whether  by  the  agency  of 
that  industrious  rodent  or  not  is  not  stated.  Darwinism  is 
reversed  by  many  of  the  Washington  tribes,  who  hold  that 
animals,  and  even  some  vegetables,  are  descended  from  man. 
The  human  essence  from  which  the  first  Ahts  were  formed 
was  originally  contained  in  the  bodies  of  animals,  who  upon 
being  suddenly  stampeded  from  their  dwellings  left  this  mys- 
terious matter  behind  them.  Some  of  the  Ahts  contend,  how- 
ever, that  they  are  the  direct  descendants  of  a  shadowy  per- 
sonage named  Quawteaht  and  a  gigantic  Thunder  Bii-d.  The 
Chinooks  were  created  by  a  coyote,  who,  however,  did  his 
work  so  badly  and  produced  such  imperfect  specimens  of  hu- 
manity, that  but  for  the  beneficent  intervention  and  assistance 
of  a  spirit,  called  Ikanam,  the  race  must  have  ended  as  soon  as 
it  began.  Some  of  the  Washington  tribes  originated  from  the 
fragments  of  a  huge  beaver,  which  was  slain  and  cut  in  pieces 
by  four  giants,  at  the  request  of  their  sister,  who  was  pining 
away  for  some  beaver  fat.  The  first  Shasta  was  the  result  of  a 
union  between  the  daughter  of  the  Great  Spirit  and  a  grizzly 
bear.  The  Cahrocs  believe  that  Chareya,  the  Old  Man  Above, 
created  the  world,  then  the  fishes  and  lower  animals,  and  lastly 
man.  The  Potoyantes  were  slowly  developed  from  coyotes. 
The  Big  Man  of  the  Mattoles  created  first  the  earth,  bleak  and 
naked,  and  placed  but  one  man  upon  it ;  then,  on  a  sudden,  in 
the  midst  of  a  mighty  whirlwind  and  thick  darkness,  he  cov- 
ered the  desolate  globe  with  all  manner  of  life  and  verdure. 


DOCUMENT   XIII. 


609 


le 
3e8 


y 

re, 


One  of  the  mytha  of  Southern  California  attributes  the  creation 
of  man  and  of  the  world  to  two  divine  beings.  The  Los  An- 
geles tribes  believe  that  their  one  God  Quaoar  brought  forth 
the  world  from  chaos,  set  it  upon  the  shoulders  of  seven  giants, 
peopled  it  with  the  lower  forms  of  animal  life,  and  finally 
crowned  his  work  by  creating  a  man  and  a  woman  out  of 
earth.  Still  farther  south,  the  Cochimis  believe  in  a  sole 
Creator;  the  Pericuis  call  the  Maker  of  all  things  Niparaja, 
and  say  that  the  heavens  are  his  dwelling-place ;  the  Sinaloas 
pay  reverence  to  Viriseva,  the  mother  of  Vairubi,  the  first  man. 
According  to  the  Navajos,  all  mankind  originally  dwelt  under 
the  earth,  in  plmcst  perpetual  darkness,  until  they  were  re- 
leased by  the  Moth-worm,  who  bored  his  way  up  to  the  surface. 
Through  the  hole  thus  made  the  people  swarmed  out  on  to  the 
face  of  the  earth,  the  Navajos  taking  the  lead.  Their  first  act 
was  to  manufacture  the  sun  and  the  moon ;  but  with  the  light 
came  confusion  of  tongues.  The  Great  Father  and  Mother  of 
the  Moquis  created  men,  in  nine  races,  from  all  sorts  of  primeval 
forms.  The  Pima  Creator  made  man  and  woman  from  a  lump 
of  clay,  which  he  kneaded  with  the  sweat  of  his  own  body  and 
endowed  with  life  by  breathing  upon  it.  The  Great  Spirit  of 
the  Papagos  made  first  the  earth  and  all  living  things,  and  then 
men  in  great  numbers  from  potter's  clay.  The  Miztecs  ascribe 
their  origin  to  the  act  of  two  mighty  gods,  the  male  Lion 
Snake  and  the  female  Tiger  Snake,  or  of  their  Sons,  Wind  of 
the  Nine  Snakes  and  Wind  of  the  Nine  Caves.  The  Tezcucan 
story  is  that  the  sun  cast  a  dart  into  the  earth  at  a  certain  spot 
in  the  land  of  Aculma.  From  this  hole  issued  a  man  imper- 
fectly formed,  and  after  him  a  woman,  from  which  pair  man- 
kind are  descended.  The  Tlascaltecs  asserted  that  the  world 
was  the  effect  of  chance,  while  the  heavens  had  always  existed. 
The  most  common  Mexican  belief  was  that  the  first  human 
beings,  a  boy  and  a  girl,  were  produced  by  the  blood-bcs^jrinkled 
fragments  of  a  bone  procured  from  Hades,  by  the  sixteen 
hundred  lower  gods,  sprung  from  the  flint-knife  of  which  the 
goddess  Citlalicue  had  been  delivered.  According  to  the  Chi- 
malpopoca  manuscript,  the  Creator  produced  his  work  in  suc- 
cessive epochs,  man  being  made,  on  the  seventh  day,  from  dust 
or  ashes.  In  Guatemala  there  was  a  belief  that  the  parents  of 
the  human  race  were  created  out  of  the  earth  by  the  two 
younger  sons  of  the  divine  Father  and  Mother.  The  Quiche 
creation  was  a  very  bungling  affair :  three  times  and  of  three 
I.— 89 


'^f1' 


610 


APPENDIX   OF   DOCUMENTS. 


V 

''"ip 

M'i 

B      'W: 

him 

materials  was  man  made  before  his  makers  were  satisfied  with 
their  work.  First  of  clay,  but  he  lacked  intelligence ;  next  of 
wood,  but  he  was  shrivelled  and  useless ;  finally  of  yellow  and 
white  maize,  and  then  he  proved  to  be  a  noble  work.  Four 
men  were  thus  made  and  afterwards  four  women." 


DOCUMENT  XIV. 


i- 1 


l!  '  M 


l-'t 


» '■  l-i     ''in 


ANCIENT   WORSHIP   OF   THE   CROSS   IN    NEW   BRUNSWICK.* 

"Voici  cependant,  quoique  en  abrege,  quolques  raisons  prin- 
cipales  qui  m'obligerent  de  croire  que  la  Croix  avait  ete  en 
veneration  parmi  ces  barbares,  avant  la  premiere  arrivee  des 
Fran^ais  dans  leur  pays ;  car,  voulant  un  jour  faire  avouer  k 
ces  infideles  que  les  missionnaires  qui  m'avaient  precede  leur 
avaient  enseigne  la  maniere  dont  ils  devaient  adorer  la  croix : 
'  He  quoi !'  me  dit  le  chef,  '  tu  es  patriarche,  tu  veux  que  nous 
croyions  tout  ce  que  tu  nous  proposes  et  tu  ne  veux  pas  croire 
ce  que  nous  te  disons ;  tu  n'as  pas  encore  quarante  ans,  et  il  n'y 
en  a  que  deux  que  tu  demeures  avec  les  sauvages,  et  tu  pretends 
savoir  nos  maxiraes,  nos  traditions  et  nos  contumes  mieux  que 
nos  ancetres  qui  nous  les  ont  enseignees.  Ne  vois-tu  pas  tons 
les  jours  le  vieillard  Quiondo,  qui  a  plus  de  six-vingt  ans  ?  II 
a  vu  le  premier  navire  qui  ait  aborde  dans  notre  pays :  il  t'a 
repete  si  souvent  que  les  sauvages  de  Mizamichis  n'ont  pas  re^u 
des  etrangers  I'usage  de  la  Croix ;  et  ce  qu'il  en  sait  lui-meme, 
il  I'a  appris  par  la  tradition  de  ses  peres  qui  ont  vecu  pour  le 
moins  aussi  longtemps  que  lui.  Tu  peux  done  inferer  que  nous 
I'avions  regue  avant  que  les  Fran^ais  vinssent  a  nos  cotes.  Mais 
si  tu  fais  encore  quelque  difficulte  de  te  rendre  a  cette  raison,  en 
voici  une  autre  qui  te  doit  entierement  convaincre  de  la  verite 
que  tu  revoques  en  doute.  Tu  as  de  I'esprit  puisque  tu  es 
patriarche  et  tu  paries  a  Dieu ;  tu  sais  que  la  nation  des  Gas- 
pesiens  s'etcnd  depuis  le  Cap  des  Eosiers  jusqu'  au  Cap  Breton ; 
tu  n'ignores  pas  que  les  suavages  de  Ristigouche  sont  nos  freres 
et  nos  compatriotes,  qui  parlent  la  meme  langue  que  nous ;  tu 
les  a  quittes  pour  venir  nous  voir ;  tu  les  as  instruits ;  tu  as  vu 
les  viellards  qui  ont  ete  baptises  par  d'autres  missionnaires  que 
toi,  et  cependant  nous  avons  ete  prives  malheureusement  de  ce 

•  Chrestien  Leclercq,  Nouvelle  275.  ( Ref.  to  pp.  442,  aeq.  ;  vol.  ii. 
Relation  de  la  Gasp^sie,  pp.  274,     ch.  xiii.) 


iM 


DOCUMENT    XVI. 


611 


bonheur  jusqu'  a  present.  Si  done  la  Croix  est  la  marque 
saoree  qui  distingue  les  Chretiens  d'avec  les  infideles,  comme 
tu  nous  I'enseignes,  dis-nous  pourquoi  les  patriarches  nous  en 
auraient-ils  donne  I'usage,  preferablement  a  nos  freres  de  Risti- 
gouche,  qu'ils  ont  baptises,  et  qui  cependant  n'ont  pas  eu  tou- 
jours  le  signe  des  Chretiens  en  veneration,  comme  nos  aneetres, 
qui  n'ont  jamais  re^u  le  bapteme  ?  Tu  vols  done  manifestement, 
que  ce  n'est  pas  des  missionnaires  que  nous  aVons  le  mystere  de 
la  Croix.'  L'on  dira  que  ce  raise  nnement  est  sauvage;  il  est 
vrai,  je  I'avoue,  mais  il  n'en  est  pas  pour  cela  ni  moins  persuasif 
ni  moins  convaincant,  puisqu'il  est  vrai  de  dire  que  les  sauvages 
de  Ristigouche  sont  baptises  et  qu'ils  ne  portent  point  cepen- 
dant la  Croix,  mais  bien  la  figure  d'un  saumon,  qu'ils  avaient 
anciennement  pendue  au  col,  comme  la  marque  d'honneur  de 
leur  pays." 


!l 


erne, 
ur  le 
nous 
Mais 
n,  en 
erite 
u   08 

Gas- 
ston; 
•eres 

;  tu 
^8  vu 

que 
le  ce 


DOCUMENT  XV. 

A   CRUCIFIX   IN   ZAPOTECA.i 

"Passando  Topiltzin  per  todos  estos  pueblos  [new  Spain] 
dicen  [the  natives]  que  yba  entallando  en  las  pefias  cruces  y 
ymagenes ;  y  preguntandoles  donde  se  podrian  ver  para  satis- 
facerme,  nombraronme  ciertos  lugares  donde  lo  podria  ver, 
y  uno  en  la  ^apoteca ;  y  preguntado  a  un  Espafiol  que  se  avia 
allado  por  alii,  si  aquello  fuese  verdad,  me  certifico  con  jura- 
mento  qu'el  avia  visto  un  crucifixo  entallado  en  una  pefia  en 
una  quebrada." 


DOCUMENT  XVI. 

quetzalcoatl's  prophecy  renewed  IN  A.D.  1384.' 

"  Un  document  emane  de  Cortes  et  dont  I'original  est  perdu, 
mais  qui  a  ete  conserve  dans  un  '  vidimus'  de  1617,  atteste  I'ar- 
rivee  d'un  Missionnaire  blanc  en  1384,  c'est  a  dire  peu  d'ann^es 
apres  le  passage  au  Mexiquo  du  pecheur  Frislandais.'  Cet 
homme  blanc,  barbu,  vetu  a  la  maniere  des  papas  du  pays, 

*  Duran,  Historia  de  laa  Indiaa  encee  G^ographiques  de  Paris  en 

de  Nueva  Espafia,  t.  ii.  p.  76.    ( Ref.  1889,  p.  439.     ( Ref.  to  p.  571. ) 

to  p.  454. )  '  See  vol.  ii.  ch.  xii.,  circa  finem, 

'  Congr^s  International  des  Sci-  and  Document  LIV.,  n. 


612 


APPENDIX   OF    DOCUMENTS. 


!i 


iM 


!'i 


u 


ressomblant  a  un  pretre  et  tenant  un  livre  a  la  main,  dit  a 
Acamapichi,  premier  roi  de  Mexico,  qu'il  etait  dans  une  grande 
en-eur ;  qu'il  ne  fallait  ni  sacrifier  pes  semblables,  ni  manger  do 
chi  ir  humaine ;  que  ses  idoles  seraient  renversees ;  que  les  fils 
du  soleil — hommes  Je  I'Bst — deviendraient  maitres  du  pays; 
qu'ilp  le  tyranniseraient  et  s'empareraient  des  indigenes  et  de 
leurs  biens ;  qu'il  avait  a  bien  remplir  ses  devoirs  et  que  tout  en 
irait  mieux.  On  salt  d'autre  part  que,  vers  le  meme  temps,  ou 
en  d'autres  termes,  quatre  generations  avant  I'arrivee  de  Cortes, 
les  indigenes  etaient  fort  emus  par  I'annonce  de  la  future  domi- 
nation des  Blancs.  On  ne  pent  douter  qu'ils  n'aient  ete  en 
rapport  avec  des  Europeens,  precisement  a  I'epoque,  oil  le 
pecheur  Frislandals  afflrmait  avoir  visite  le  Mexique." 


DOCUMENT  XVII. 

THE    HERITLI    WITH    SAVAGE    8CRITIFINN8    IN    ICELAND    AND    GREEN- 
LAND.' 

"Postquam  Eruli,  per  Longobardos  ut  acie  victi  ac  penitus 
debellati,  patrios  mores  pristinis  exciti  sedibus  reliquerunt : 
alii  in  lUyricis  loca  incoluere ;  quidam  vero  quum  Histrum 
flumen  haudquaquam  trajicere  statuissent,  in  ultimos  terrse  fines 
se  coUocarunt:  sed  qui  regii  sanguinis  sunt  duces  secuti, 
Sclavinorum  gentem  prsetereundo,  quum  in  loca  deserta  jam 
evasissent,  ad  Hormos  populos  se  contulere ;  post  hos  ad  Dacas 
pertranseuntes,  ad  oceanum  mare  quum  pervenissent,  navibus 
ad  insulam  Thulem  delati,  in  ea  denique  constitere.  Constat 
autem  Thulem  banc  insulam  longe  plurimum  undequaque  po- 
tentissimam  esse,  quippe  quam  decies  ferant  majorem  esse 
quam  Brittania  sit,  a  qua  longius  abest,  ut  in  Boream  sita. 
Hac  ipsa  in  insula  deserta  pleraque  sunt,  et  ingentibus  vacua 
spatiis  loca.  Qujb  vero  frequentiora  sedificiis  sunt  et  hominum 
cultu  nationes  tredecim  numero  incolunt,  affluentissima  quadam 
mortalium  multitudine,  regesque  singulis  nationibus  praesunt. 
Et  apud  has  universas  mirandum  quod  fieri  contingit,  siquidem 
circa  extremum  eestatis  tempus,  dum  in  autumnum  hsac  se 
circumagit,  ad  quadrage^imum  plurimum  diem,  haudquaquam 
sol  in  occiduum  vergit,  sed  per  omne  id  tempus  supra  terram 

•  Procopiufl  Geesariensis,  de  Re-  thorum,  lib.  ii.  pp.  92,  93.  (Ref. 
bus  Gothorum.  .  .  .  De  Bello  Go-     top.  322.) 


DOCUMENT   X" 


613 


existit  et  visitur.  Deinde  non  minore  quara  mensium  sex  in- 
tervallo  circa  hyemisque  extrema  eadoni  in  insula,  per  dies  sol 
quadraginta  nuspiam  comparet,  sed  porpetua  hoec  offenditur 
nocte.  .  .  .  Mihi  vero  banc  insulam  adeundi  etsi  nimium  perop- 
tanti  oblata  nunquam  occasio  est,  ut  miranda  ista  conspicereni. 
Ab  his  tamen  quserendo  et  sciseitando  qui  inde  se  ad  nos  con- 
tulerunt,  num  ea  in  insula  statis  temporibus  bic  oriretur,  ut 
traditur,  sol  et  occideret,  certiorera  esse  ejus  rei  comperi  famam, 
ex  eorum  prsesertim  relatu,  qui  solem  ea  in  insula  identidem 
affirmarent  per  dies  bos  quadraginta,  nee  occidere  quidem.    .    .    . 

"  Ex  his  vero  qui  Tbulem  banc  insulam  incolunt,  barbarorum 
natio  qurodam  ac  sola,  qui  Scritifinni  vocantur,  belluarum  in 
morem  vitam  ducunt,  ut  qui  nee  vestibus  operiantur  nee  cal- 
ceati  incedant,  nee  vino  utantur,  nee  ullum  babeant  e  terra 
edulium,  quandoquidera  nee  earn  excolunt,  nee  feminse  quicquam 
his  operentur ;  sed  cum  uxoribus  viri  venationibus  student : 
bestiarum  namque  et  animantium  croterorum  vim  maximam  his 
exhibent  sylvse,  qu8B  vastas  ea  in  regione  proculdubio  sunt,  et 
editissimi  montes ;  unde  ferarum  carnibus  vescuntiir,  aissiduo 
quas  venando  eomprehendunt.  Et  earum  tergoribus  v  estiuntur, 
quum  apud  hos  lini  lanaeve  nuUus  sit  usus,  nee  consuendi  ars 
ulla  vel  instrumentum,  sed  belvinis  hi  nervis  invicem  tergora 
colligantes,  totum  integunt  corpus.  .  .  .  Aliis  vero  in  rebus 
ThulitsB  omnes  non  magnum  in  modum  a  caeteris  mortalibus 
diiferunt:  deos  siquidem  ac  da^mones  plurimos  colunt  coelestes 
partim,  ut  rentur  partim  aereos,  et  qui  terrse  ac  mari  prsesideant, 
et  ejusmodi  alios  qui  in  aquis  ac  fontibus  fluviisque  versari  tra- 
duntur ;  hisque  frequentissime  immolant  cujusvis  generis  hostias. 
Sed  victimarum  apud  hos  potissiraa,  vir  aliquis  est  quem  omnium 
primum  in  prsBlio  ceperint;  hunc  nimirum  mactando  Marti 
sacrificant,  ut  quem  deorum  maximum  ducant.  Sed  ea  est 
apud  hos  immolandi  consuetudo,  ut  non  solum  hostiam  mactent, 
sed  in  arborem  vivam  banc  prius  suspendant,  indeque  inter 
senticeta  et  vepres  projectam  sic  variis  ac  miseris  modis  excru- 
ciando  confidant.  .  .  . 

"  Et  hos  quidem  fuisse  sat  constat,  apud  quos  olim  cohabitandi 
ob  gratiam  adven©  Eruli  diverterint." 


END   OP   VOL.   I. 


